Big Brother
by tvfan69
Summary: Sequel to "Baby of Mine". Its been four years since Karai and Casey's world was turned upside-down and now Justin's the one who has some adjusting to do, of course nothing is ever simple in the Hamato clan and this "adjusting" has to happen while dealing with the latest Kraang plot. Piece of cake right?
1. Smoke and Bomb (Part 1)

Considering she grew up in The Foot Clan where she spent every day of her life in either training or on some type of mission Karai never really put much thought into having children, and even if she did have children one day she had always been careful so that she didn't end up a mother at a young age of say eighteen. But that's exactly what happened. Heck technically she had become a mother at sixteen when she pressed that button on the mutagen tank, she just didn't know it yet. Once Justin was turned into a human baby, and Donnie determined that his human DNA came from her and Casey Jones, that was it. She and Casey were both teen parents; and they wouldn't dare go back and change it.

So now, here she is, twenty-two and waiting outside the front steps of Lincoln elementary school for her six-year-old son to come bumbling down the steps. Life the past few years has been pretty good; Casey's working with his dad doing electrical work and she teaches a few day classes at a martial arts center. It's nothing compared to what she grew up with but it's still something she loves doing.

 _Going to have to talk Sensei Akiyama soon,_ she thought to herself, making a mental note that she needed to talk to her boss about something important.

She fiddled with her necklace at the idea of it; the so-called piece of trash hadn't left her neck since the day Casey gave it to her.

Just then the sight of the school's front door opening snapped Karai from her thoughts. Kids between the ages of five and eleven came hurrying down the steps, and as usual Justin was one of the first ones. He looks a lot like Casey; his dark bangs hanging in his face and his freckles covering his nose and cheeks.

"Hey mom," he greets her with a smile as she lifts his Transformers backpack from him and puts it on her own shoulders, it's practically empty and plenty light for him to carry himself, but it's bulky and almost big as he is.

"How was school today?" Karai asks as she takes his hand in hers and they head off down the sidewalk.

"It was good, we played with drums in music class!" He exclaimed excitedly

"That sounds fun," Karai responded and Justin nodded.

"Yeah but then Mrs. Albert let us play with play-dough only I didn't get to cause it was when reading time's supposed to be." He pouted and Karai sighed, sometimes she wasn't sure who had taken it harder when they figured out Justin had inherited Casey's dyslexia; Justin or Casey.

They both got over it rather quickly, mostly because Casey remembers how awfully things were handled when his family found out about him and so he was very careful about not only explaining the situation to Justin but also explaining The Program to him. Unlike Casey as a child Justin actually enjoyed going to the special room in the school during his class's reading time, but every once in a while the daily schedule would change for whatever reason and he would end up missing something fun instead of reading, those were the days he hated.

"I'm sorry," Karai said sympathetically, "but just remember you get to play all those fun games in the helping room, and don't pretend I don't know Ms. Bellamy gives you candy every Friday. I think you'll survive missing one play-dough day with Mrs. Albert." She reminded her son who shrugged, but he knew she was right.

"I guess," he muttered; obviously still a little upset that he had missed play-dough.

"We're going over to the lair tonight for pizza," Karai said, trying to change the subject.

"Why?" Justin asked, it isn't uncommon for them to go and eat at the lair, but it is uncommon for it to be a set plan. Usually Uncle Mikey just calls five minutes before they eat to see if anybody's interested, or sometimes they just go over to hang out and end up staying for dinner.

"Just cause," Karai answers with a shrug. Justin doesn't seem to buy it but he doesn't seem to entirely doubt it either, he can't think of an explanation so he just lets it go.

* * *

"Raph says they ran into The Kraang last night," Casey announced as he entered the apartment after work, just in time to see Karai and Justin putting on their coats.

"We'll be fine," Karai assured as she tossed him his coat.

"You two were going to leave without me weren't you?" He playfully questioned his long time girlfriend who simply laughed.

"Don't come home late and that won't happen," she teased but Casey only rolled his eyes.

* * *

Soon all three of them were on their way to the lair, and they learned the hard way that Raph meant it when he said the Kraang are back. They weren't far from the sewer entrance when they ran into them, but they ran into a lot of them. For the most part the fight consisted of Karai and Casey taking the Kraang down while Justin just dodged attacks and helped where he could. He's been training, but he's nowhere near ready to take on the Kraang.

Karai was completely unaware of where Casey and Justin were in the fight; in fact she was barely aware of where she was. She was trying to take down the Kraang, trying to focus on at least keeping them away from Justin, but her whole world was spinning. She didn't even register the robot seizing her arm, her eyes closing as she blacked out, or Casey screaming her name.

Casey turned around just in time to see what happened. For one thing Karai didn't look too good. Then he didn't even know what happened first, if the Kraangdroid restrained her or she fainted.

"Karai!" He shouted her name, because this isn't right, this isn't her. Something's wrong, something is wrong with her. He ran for her, trying to free her, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Justin following him. "Justin run!" He shouted over his shoulder as he tried to take down the Kraangdroids, but there were too many and without Karai to help he was outnumbered.

"But-" Justin squeaked out

"RUN!" Casey shouted back and as he fought, as he was overpowered, he heard the quick footsteps of his son sprinting away.

* * *

"RUN!" His father's voice rang loud in his ears, and Justin booked it. He wanted to help, but he's been around during Kraang attacks before and he knows that when dad says 'run' it means run.

So he bolted down the sidewalk, sprinting down the route to the lair that he had memorized years ago. He was going so fast that he nearly forgot to replace the manhole cover as he practically fell down the hole. The instant he landed he sprung back to his feet, not bothering to pay any notion to the impact of the fall. He dashed through the sewers, not slowing down even when he started to feel like his lungs were on fire.

"Uncle Leo! Uncle Leo!" He shouted as soon as he reached somewhere within roughly a hundred yards of the lair. "Uncle Leo! Uncle Leo!" He continued to scream. Clearly his Uncle heard his shouts because when Justin finally reached the entrance of the lair the blue-banded turtle was already there.

"Justin, Justin calm down!" Leo exclaimed as the boy skidded to a stop at the turnstiles, bent over and gasping for breath.

"Mom…dad…Kraa…Kraang!" He exclaimed

"Whoa what's that about the Kraang?" Raph questioned as he joined the two, along with Mikey and Donnie trailing behind him.

"We…we were attacked by the Kraang. Mom fainted and then…" he trailed off, trying to catch his breath and now tears were starting to form in his eyes.

"Justin, Justin did the Kraang get them?" Leo asked as he kneeled down and gently placed his hands on his nephew's shoulders.

Vigorously Justin nodded, tears now streaming down his face.

"Ok, ok just calm down. Aunt April's in the dojo, tell her what happened and that we'll be back with your parents." Leo instructed the boy who sniffled as he tried to stop crying.

"They're, they're going to be ok right?" He asked, he's seen the Kraang before, he can even remember being brought along on one or two emergency missions over the years, but he'd never seen them take the people he loves as prisoners.

"They're going to be fine," Leo responded, trying to sound reassuring. Ordinarily he wouldn't be too worried, but if what Justin said about Karai fainting is true then something isn't right. Of course Justin could be wrong, she could've been knocked out or drugged by the Kraang. But that doesn't matter, what matters is the Kraang have two of their own held captive.

* * *

When Karai woke up she was lying on the ground in some sort of Kraang prison cell.

"Hey," A gentle voice that she immediately recognized as her boyfriend's said as she sat up, the world around her slowly becoming clearer.

"Hey, what hap- oh my god Justin!" She panicked as the memory of the fight came flooding back to her. Justin was with them, but he isn't here now.

"Don't worry Justin got away, I tried to get us out of there but-"

"I was dead weight," Karai grudgingly interrupted, she knew something like this could happen, that she could pass out, but she figured she'd be fine. Apparently she was wrong.

"Hey you passed out, it's not your fault." Casey tried to assure her but she just crossed her arms over her chest and huffed, clearly still angry with herself. "Do you know why you passed out?" He tried

"Probably dehydrated or something," Karai mumbled without thinking

"Karai I saw you drink half a bottle of water this morning to get the taste out of your mouth after you threw up, I know that's not much but I'm assuming you had the common sense to drink some water after your martial arts class." Casey said, he didn't have a clue what was going on with his girlfriend but he doubted she was dehydrated.

"Ok so I'm not dehydrated," she admitted, a part of her was wondering if maybe she should just tell him what's going on.

"It's probably because you haven't been eating, and on top of that you've been throwing up the past couple days and still going to work!" He theorized, clearly annoyed that this had been happening.

"It's not my fault I can't keep anything down, and that dry toast you tried forcing down my throat is disgusting." Karai snapped back at him,

"Maybe but it's better than nothing," Casey argued

"Remind me of that the next time you're sick," Karai scoffed and in response Casey just face palmed, he loves Karai but sometimes she can be so difficult.

Karai, on the other hand, knew he was right. She hadn't been purposely starving herself, and it hadn't even been a week, but she definitely hadn't been eating enough recently so she really did bring this on herself. She was about to open her mouth again but that was when the room suddenly began filling with air from dimension x.

* * *

"So where to?" Raph asked as the four turtles darted across the rooftops, even though they're twenty-one years old not much has changed with their patrolling techniques, especially when they don't know where to start.

Leo sighed as he tried to think, they had asked Justin where he was when the Kraang attacked but the poor kid couldn't give a helpful description.

"I don't know but we need to get to them soon, Karai was sick the other day and if she fainted during battle then it could be worse than just the stomach bug." Donnie pointed out, remembering how they had watched Justin two days ago because Karai didn't want to get him sick.

"Yeah well Karai hates medicine, odds are she refused to take something." Raph added

"Raph there isn't really anything that can be taken for the stomach bug," Donnie lectured his hotheaded brother.

"Ok Karai is fine, let's just focus on figuring out where the Kraang took her and Casey." Leo interrupted, sure he's concerned about Karai fainting as much as the others, but arguing over why it happened is going to have to wait until later.

"What about that warehouse we found last night?" Mikey suggested

"You mean the one we blew up?" Raph asked

"Oh yeah," Mikey said when he was reminded of that fact.

"Actually a lot of the Kraang's bases usually have an underground level, its possible that part survived the explosion." Donnie theorized and Leo nodded

"Better than nothing," he agreed and so with that the four of them set out for their demolition sight from their previous Kraang encounter.

* * *

Casey groaned as he started to come too, and then panicked when he realized he was strapped by his wrists and ankles to some kind of upright examination table.

"Calm down," Karai told him, that was when he looked to his right to see that she was already awake and in the same predicament.

"What…what's going on?" He asked

"Beats me, I just woke up two minutes ago." Karai said as she looked around, it was obvious that they were still in the Kraang base, but they had been moved to some kind of lab.

There were two Kraangdroids in the room, both hunched over a computer desk, but strangely the room was dark. It was lit only by the pink lights that always seemed to surround Kraang tech; but any actual light bulbs looked as though they had all gone out. The room was also a total mess. Loose wires and busted computers lay everywhere, it looked as though the robots were using the only functioning computer left in the place.

"It looks like there was a full on war in here," Casey commented, as his eyes adjusted to the dimness of the room he noticed that among the computer scrap were a few dozen robot bodies lying discarded and broken beyond repair.

"You said the guys ran into the Kraang last night, maybe they were here." Karai suggested

"In that case they shouldn't have any trouble finding us," Casey muttered and Karai nodded in agreement before squeezing her eyes shut and all but slamming her head back against the table she was strapped to.

"Hey are you ok?" Casey asked, although it was quite obvious that his girlfriend is anything but ok right now.

That fact aside she nodded and took a deep breath, "Yeah, I just think I'm going to be sick again." She said quickly, feeling as though speaking would only cause her to throw up even more, if that makes any sense.

"You need to see a doctor," Casey stated, though it sounded more like an instruction.

Karai just groaned through her closed mouth.

Before anything else could be said between the two one of the Kraangdroids walked over and pointed some kind of gun at Casey.

"Hey, hey get away from him!" Karai shouted at the robot, thrashing about in her restraints, despite the action making her even more nauseous.

But the Kraang didn't even acknowledge her, instead it simply pressed down on the gun's trigger and a pink light shot out and appeared to scan Casey. It only last a few seconds, and when it was done the alien repeated the same action on Karai.

"Hey! Hey what was that thing!?" Casey demanded as the robot walked back to its computer without a word. "Great, when did they finally learn the quiet game?" Casey questioned

"I don't know," Karai answered.

"Kraang, Kraang believes that Kraang should see this." The robot who had scanned them finally said to his partner. Even after six years the aliens still can't seem to grasp English.

"What is it Kraang?" The other robot asked as it too huddled over the computer.

"The prisoner that is known as the female appears to be carrying another human within her, Kraang believes that the ones known as humans call it what is known as an embryo." The confused robot explained; Casey's jaw dropped while his eyes bulged out of his head.

He then turned and looked at Karai, who had not only pressed her mouth into a firm line but was also looking anywhere but at him, or the Kraang for that matter.

"You're pregnant!?" He finally exclaimed, her behavior telling him that this wasn't news to her.

Her shoulders slumped, well as much as they could with her arms restrained above her head, as she released the breath she was holding.

"I didn't want you to find out this way," she sighed, slowly turning her head to face him.

"Karai!" Casey shouted, hurt that she would keep something like this from him.

"Hey I just found out this morning!" She defended, "I took three tests after you and Justin left, so after I spent a good hour freaking out over the fact that they were all positive I called in sick from work and went over to that walk in clinic." She explained, "and I was going to tell you tonight," she finished.

"You could've told me when were stuck in that cell!" Casey all but shouted, the two didn't notice but the Kraangdroids were watching them as if they were watching a tennis match.

"For your information Jones I was about too when that stupid gas knocked us out!" Karai's voice matched Casey's, whose face suddenly turned to panic.

"The gas! What if it-"

"Relax Casey, the baby's fine." Karai cut him off, knowing what he was about to suggest and not wanting to hear it. She wouldn't admit it but the sentence felt strange coming out of her mouth, actually referring to this child out loud made it's existence all the more real; and honestly Karai was still processing the idea.

"How do you know?" Casey asked, clearly still nervous that the gas toxic enough to knock out two adults was more than enough to kill an unborn baby.

But before she could answer the two Kraang fell, and the two humans looked up to see the turtles dropping from the rafters on the ceiling.

"I don't know what you two were yapping about but thanks, they were so distracted by you they never saw us coming." Raph said, pointing over his shoulder at the downed robots, their little pilots already scampering away in fear.

"Are you guys ok?" Donnie questioned as he freed Casey while Leo took care of Karai.

"Yeah Casey, you look paler than usual." Mikey joked, the instant she was free Karai darted over to the computer and grabbed the Kraang's flash drive.

"What's that?" Donnie questioned as his sister shoved the flash drive into her pocket.

"I'm not sure, you can check it out in your lab later but for now let's just get out of here." She answered.

* * *

After leaving the Kraang base, or what was left of it, they all went back to the lair but before following the guys into the sewer Casey pulled Karai aside in the alley.

"You know what Donnie's gonna find if he looks at that flash drive," he said

"I was thinking about telling them tonight too, I wasn't sure; I was going to see how you reacted first. But remember when you asked me how I know the baby's ok?" She questioned and Casey nodded.

"I don't," she admitted with a sigh, "I can't wait until the doctors office opens tomorrow to find out, I trust Donnie more than doctors anyway so I'm going to tell him and see if there's any way he can check." She continued and Casey responded by putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I'm going in there with you," he said with a reassuring smile.

"I don't care or want to know what you two are doing up there, but hurry up!" Raph's voice suddenly came shouting from the sewer below.


	2. Smoke and Bomb (Part 2)

Donnie figured something was up when; after being rescued from the Kraang, Karai only acknowledged Justin long enough to let him know everything was ok. She then followed him into his lab, along with Casey, which Donnie found even weirder, but all became clear when she explained to him what was going on.

"So do you think you can, you know, see if it's alright?" She awkwardly asked once she had explained the situation.

"I can try," Donnie all but cringed, "but considering you said you're only about nine weeks in I can't promise the image will be clear enough to pick up something wrong." He warned her

"Donnie I have no idea how long I was trapped in a room filled with poison gas and when I woke up I felt sick, like worse than morning sickness sick, I don't care how far fetched it is just please try." She pleaded and Donnie sighed, the fear was written all over her face and he had never in his life seen his sister so scared.

"Ok, go lie down on the bed." He instructed and without a word she did as she was told, Casey followed her of course, while Donnie went and wheeled out a machine that had been sitting in the corner of the lab for a while now.

"Ok now I've never actually used the ultrasound machine so let's hope it works," Donnie said

"Donnie, why do you even have an ultrasound machine?" Casey questioned

"Oh I built it after the whole squirrelinoid incident a few years ago, I gave the homeless guy an x-ray at the time but that wasn't exactly safe so I built this thing should it ever happen again." The genius explained.

"So you've just had it sitting there for almost five years? I'm surprised you didn't scrap it for parts," Karai commented

"Yeah well after that time Mikey walked in on you guys I figured I might actually need it one day," Donnie argued

"For the thousandth time nothing happened that day!" Casey all but shouted, after four years you would think they would let that incident at the farmhouse go.

"I'm not talking about the farmhouse Casey, I'm talking about Christmas Eve two years ago." Donnie explained and both Casey and Karai turned beat red, they couldn't deny that one. "Now if we're done with this disturbing trip down memory lane, should we get started?" He asked just as he finished setting up the machine.

Karai nodded and rolled up her shirt, allowing Donnie to squirt some gel on her stomach; something else Casey wondered why he had or even where he got but this time he kept his mouth shut. Karai shivered slightly when the gel came in contract with her skin, but she soon grew used to it.

"The fact that the skin on my stomach is mostly scar tissue won't cause any problems will it?" She asked but to her relief Donnie shook his head.

"Shouldn't, but tell me if the wand hurts you." He responded, though he knew that she wouldn't say anything even if he somehow did hurt her with the wand.

* * *

"Are you sure they're ok?" Justin groaned, normally stories about the Kraang didn't bother him at all, but seeing them take both his parents had been enough to spook him and the fact that now they were both with Uncle Donnie in the lab wasn't helping.

"Justin they're fine, I'm sure Uncle Donnie's just checking them over." Raph assured the boy who was really starting to get on his nerves.

"But they've been in there a long time!" Justin groaned and Raph rolled his eyes, it had only been five minutes.

"Ya but you know Uncle Donnie, he gets all freaked out over every little thing." Mikey butted in, trying to get his nephew to talk to him instead of Raph, as his older brother was getting close to boiling over.

"But what's making him freak out?" Justin whimpered, now sounding even more nervous than before.

"Oh for crying out loud!" Raph exclaimed as he got off the couch and stalked over to the lab door. He knows Donnie doesn't like it when they barge in without knocking, safety precaution in case he's working with chemicals or explosives. But he also knows that Donnie is currently not working with chemicals or explosives, so he doesn't care. "All there doing is looking at a computer, so if you're so concerned go join them!" The hothead exclaimed as he threw open the door, and boy did he wish he hadn't.

Inside he had expected to find Donnie sitting at his desk with Casey and Karai standing behind him, all looking over that flash drive. But instead what he saw was Karai lying in the medical bed hooked up to some machine, Casey standing up by her head and Donnie standing between her and the machine holding some kind of wire. But wait… was she hooked up to the machine? It didn't look like it, and what was Donnie holding? Suddenly, just as all three of them looked at him in surprise, it clicked for Raph what was happening.

Oh crap.

"Mom?" Justin's timid voice came from behind Raph, "Are you ok?" He asked, he saw the machine too but unlike his Uncle he has no idea what it does, so he assumes the worst.

"I'm fine baby, Uncle Donnie is just looking at my tummy." Karai answered gently and to her credit calmly, though she was praying her son wouldn't have any follow up questions.

"Why?" He asked, sending that hope out the window.

"I'll tell you later ok?" She asked and told at the same time

"But-" Justin began

"Justin, I promise." She said and at that Justin reluctantly shut his mouth, knowing that his mother isn't one to break a promise.

"What's going-" Leo's sentence died on his tongue when he saw what was going on inside the lab, and once his brain started working again his thoughts weren't to far off from Raph's.

"Why is everyone standing in the door?" Mikey's voice rang as he and April came up beside his brother's and nephew, then they too caught sight of what was happening. "Dude, are you ok?" Mikey questioned and although she didn't say anything April did face palm, leave it to Mikey to even at twenty-one years old be so innocent that he didn't put two and two together.

"I'm fine Mikey, why don't you and Justin go play a video game or something?" Karai suggested and Mikey's face lit up.

"Sure, come on Justin!" He exclaimed and, since the little boy knew he would be filled in later, he left happily with his Uncle.

The others however just walked further into the lab, April shutting the door behind them.

"Ok now I'm confused," Leo said as they got closer and he focused more attention on the screen than he did on his sister. "I thought you were… you know, but shouldn't there be something there?" He asked while pointing to the screen.

"I am, or I was. I don't know, all the tests said I was but then the Kraang hit us with that gas and…" She trailed off and Leo couldn't help but gasp when he realized what she was trying to say.

"You don't think…?" He tried to ask, she avoided his eyes.

"I don't know, Donnie's trying to check." She said

"The problem is it's so early on that it's hard to tell if anything's even there or not, unless I- WAIT!" Donnie cut himself off and froze his hand. The other's all leaned just a hair or two closer to the screen while Karai tried to sit up but Donnie pushed her back down.

"Hey-" she began to protest

"Just give me a minute, it's kind of hard to see and if you move before I focus it we could be back to blindly searching." He interrupted and so with a scowl Karai conceded and held herself perfectly still, allowing Donnie to move the wand just a centimeter or so closer to her hip bone and down a little bit before he gave her the ok to sit up, albeit slowly so he wouldn't loose the image.

"Uh Donnie, what are we looking at?" Raph questioned

"That right there," Donnie said, pointing to a little black spot in the corner of the screen.

"That peanut looking thing?" Casey asked, squinting as he tried to see the blurry image better.

"That's your kid Jones," Donnie said, resisting the urge to pull a Raph and smack Casey on the back of the head.

"Are you sure? It kind of just looks like a blob," Leo pointed out, both Karai and April rolled their eyes at the conversation.

"Yes I'm sure!" Donnie exclaimed in defense

"I don't mean to interrupt but can you please tell me if the Kraang killed it or not!?" Karai snapped, she was loosing more and more of her mind by the second thinking about the possibility of her unborn child being dead thanks to those aliens, and the guys standing around arguing was NOT helping.

Pushing Casey and Leo's, and probably Raph's had Karai not snapped, jokes to the back of his mind Donnie focused intently on the screen before he asked Karai to hold onto the wand for a second while he rummaged through a drawer.

"I never got around to installing any kind of charts on this thing, I'll start working on that. But I did managed to make this," he said proudly as he came over with what looked like an old cassette player with a headphone jack sticking out of it. "It'll let us hear the heartbeat," he said proudly.

"Wicked," Casey said in awe as Donnie took the wand back from Karai and plugged the speaker to into it.

At first there was nothing but slight static and a weird swishing sound, and for a moment panic overtook both Casey and Karai at the idea that their child may actually be dead. But then Donnie handed April the speaker and he moved the wand just a little bit, and that's when the sound came through.

 _Thump, thump. Thump, thump._

The room was dead quiet for a minute, aside from the sound of the unborn child's heartbeat.

"Wow," Raph finally said, he turned and looked at Karai and Casey who were both still staring at the screen with wide eyes, despite not knowing how long they had known about this it was clear to the red-banded turtle that it hadn't really been real to either of them until now.

* * *

"What's going on in there?" Justin questioned his Uncle Mikey as the two of them rocked back and forth with the steering wheels as they raced through the Mario Kart track.

"Something boring no doubt," Mikey said, he may not have gotten a good enough look at what was happening to figure out what it was, but he did recognize his sister's _get Justin out of here_ voice. So he did what she needed him to do and trusted he'd be filled in later, which he will be because he'll annoy his siblings to no end if they don't tell him.

"After this game can we go back in?" The young boy pleaded and Mikey sighed, he really hates playing the bad guy.

"I don't think so buddy, you see after we get hurt going to see Uncle Donnie is kind of like going to the doctors, only one person goes in with you." He explained

"But everyone else went in!" Justin whined

"Yeah well those guys are jerks who don't respect privacy," he said jokingly before a huge frown spread itself across his face. "Hey no fair! You hit me with an ink bomb!" he whined and Justin simply laughed in response.

* * *

Meanwhile in the lab Donnie was putting away the ultrasound machine while the others stood around by the medical bed.

"So what now?" Leo asked since nobody seemed to have anything else to say

"Now we tell Justin and Mikey," Karai replied nervously

"Don't worry about it," Casey said as he placed an arm around his girlfriend's shoulders. "Justin's been asking for little brother or sister for years and Mikey, well he's Mikey. They'll be thrilled," he reminded her and she couldn't argue with that.

"This is just so weird," April said, sure considering their lives this is one of the more normal things to happen; but she's still in some shock from it.

"I'll say," Raph agreed, some slight hostility lacing his voice. Honestly he was still trying to decide if he should murder Casey or not.

"Raph we've been together for four years, you knew it was going to happen sometime." Karai said, sensing her brother's anger.

Raph just huffed but Leo simply smiled to himself, he was happy for his sister and her boyfriend, and he knew that if Splinter were still alive he would be too.

* * *

Just an hour and a half later Karai and Casey were home along with Justin who Karai was currently trying to put to bed. By the time the group had emerged from the lab Mikey and Justin had been so involved in their game that they decided not to snap them out of it, instead they just let them keep playing and opted to tell them the news later. So now as she followed her son into his bedroom Karai began going over it in her head, how to tell him. He crawled under his covers but made no move to lie down, because he could tell his mom wasn't just here to say goodnight.

"Ok a promise is a promise, still want to know what Uncle Donnie was looking for?" She asked him but despite her smile his face grew very worried.

"Mm Hmm" He said with a nod, seeing his worry she sat down on the side of his bed.

"Don't worry I'm not sick," she giggled and Justin let out a sigh of relief. Despite her son's amusing concern Karai's face grew serious, happy as she is about this she's still scared and telling her son just makes it even more real. "But I am pregnant," she said bluntly and she watched for her son's reaction.

Justin's eyes went wide, he'd heard that word before, his teacher last year had been pregnant for part of the school year. He knew what it meant, both for his mother and for him.

"Justin?" His mom asked when he didn't say anything, "Are you ok?" She tried and he nodded.

"Sorry," he apologized

"Don't be sorry, are you alright with this?" She asked.

In truth no, no he isn't alright with this. He is far from alright with this. But what can he say? This baby is going to come whether he likes it or not, so he simply nods.

"Yeah I'm fine, when is the baby supposed to get here?" He asked, trying to get the focus away from him.

Karai thought on that for a minute, considering she had just gone to a walk in clinic and only to get her pregnancy confirmed they hadn't given her an estimated due date, or anything other than a confirmation. Being nine weeks along was her own estimate.

"Probably sometime in September, are you sure you're ok?" She asked because Justin still seemed bothered by the idea.

"Fine," He answered with a nod, "just tired, can I go to sleep now?" He asked and with that Karai knew he just wanted her out, but she wasn't going to sit there and force him to talk. Besides, maybe he just needs to sleep on it in order to get used to the idea.

So she nodded, "goodnight," she said leaning over and giving him a kiss on the forehead, which he didn't even try to return and instead just mumbled a halfhearted "night".

* * *

"So how'd he take it?" Casey asked from his seat on the couch when his girlfriend re-entered their small living room.

"Not great," she huffed as she flopped down next to him. "He says he's fine with it but I know it's bothering him," she explained

"He'll get over it, it's a lot to take in." Casey said

"I know, I give you credit for not passing out." She joked

"Hey did I pass out when Justin came along?" He questioned with a smirk

"You looked like you were about to," Karai chuckled in response.

"Hey he was already here when we found out about him, that my friend is scary." Casey defended and again Karai laughed, before her face fell again.

"What happens if he doesn't come around?" She asked but in response Casey just smiled.

"He will, don't worry."


	3. Things that go Unsaid

"Donnie it's late," Leo groaned, it was well past midnight but his genius brother was still held up in his lab, going over that Kraang flash drive for probably the hundredth time.

"I know Leo but this just doesn't make any sense, according to this flash drive that scanner Casey described was just that, a scanner." He said

"Isn't that a good thing?" Leo questioned

"In a way. Yes it's a good thing that it didn't do any harm but I can't figure out why the Kraang would've needed this information. You see the scanner works like some kind of x-ray, only in addition to bones it can also see muscles and internal organs." Donnie explained as Leo looked over his shoulder.

"The Kraang have been on this planet and kidnapping humans for thousands of years, how don't they know this stuff already?" The leader questioned

"I don't know, but Casey and Karai aren't the only ones who have records on this thing." Donnie announced

"What?" His brother asked

"Well since it's the Kraang they're only labeled by some kind of numbering system from dimension x but they're all the same thing, three way x-ray's of humans." Donnie explained,

"You think they're looking for something?" Leo suggested, thinking that maybe the Kraang were looking for some kind of specific test subject for a new experiment.

"They weren't looking at DNA," Donnie said with a shake of his head.

"Well whatever it is, it can wait until morning. Get some sleep," Leo instructed his brother as he walked out of the lab.

With a sigh Donnie also got up and turned off his computer, deciding that Leo's right and he should get some sleep.

* * *

"For the last time Mickey I haven't talked to him!" Casey all but shouted into his cell phone that morning as Karai came walking from the bathroom.

"What's with her?" She asked as Casey hung up.

"Ah she thinks Damian's acting weird, wants to know if I've talked to him." He said

"Should we be concerned?" Karai asked, a few months after her brothers saved New York Damian was still recovering from his 'mild' case of PTSD. She didn't know him before, and according to Casey and Mikey he had always been drawn in by conspiracy and alien theories, so she couldn't judge how much he had improved. But he seemed to be doing better, until the Triceratons invaded.

Sure they were defeated, you know after they won and so the turtles along with the rest of their little group traveled back in time to defeat them before they activated their black whole generator. But the aftermath left some Kraang debris behind, and Damian determined to hunt and take them down. Fortunately all the places Damian searched were places the Kraang abandoned years ago, and he soon accepted them to have been wiped out in the Triceratons invasion. But if Mickey thinks he's acting weird, and with the recent Kraang attacks, he could've found something.

"Nah he's fine, Mick's just paranoid." Casey brushed it off, "What about you?" He asked and Karai shrugged.

"It's eight-thirty and I've only thrown up twice," she said and Casey couldn't help but smile as she walked past him and grabbed a water bottle from the fridge.

She was wearing her usual attire, yoga pants and a grey tank top. Her tank top had always clung tightly to her skin; she purposely bought it that way. But now that he knows she's pregnant he couldn't help but glance down at her abdomen and look for even the slightest bulge in her flat stomach.

"Justin come on we've got to go," Karai shouted through the apartment.

"Please tell me you don't plan to keep teaching self defense for the next nine months," Casey half pleaded, half whined.

"Relax, I'm going to talk to my boss today and see if I can spend the last three months on reception duty." She said as she went into her wallet and grabbed enough money for Justin to buy lunch.

"Ok and what about the other six?" Casey asked

"Well first of all I'm roughly nine weeks along which is about the same as two months and a week so it would really be the other four, second I don't know maybe I'll see if I can stop sparring for part of it." She said with a shrug but Casey had pretty much stopped listening after her first point. He didn't realize it before but she was right, even though it was her own estimate it couldn't be that far off; which means they have even less time to prepare, which scares him.

"Coming!" Justin shouted as he came running out of his room, his large backpack bouncing up and down on his back.

"We've got to get you a smaller backpack." Casey remarked as his son passed by him.

* * *

"I can't believe this," Angel groaned as she threw her head back against the wall she was sitting against. She'd been in her fair share of trouble throughout most of her life, but this was ridiculous. _Stupid Purple Dragons,_ she thought to herself. She wishes she could say the reason she had been caught and now imprisoned by the Kraang was because she had been fighting those losers when they broke into the alien's warehouse, but she can't. She had been on their side.

"Well believe it, there's no way out." Her cellmate told her but she simply huffed.

"Maybe not as far as you're concerned," she muttered, "but I've dealt with the Kraang before and let me tell you, they ain't that bright." She said but the slightly older woman just shook her head.

"I was one of the smartest kids in my class, until The Kraang threw me in here. I don't even know how many years it's been." She said sadly, "I've tried every conceivable way to escape, there is none." She hopelessly continued

"What year was it when they threw you in here?" Angel asked, a bit more sympathetically now that she knew the woman had been in here for so long, especially if she had still been in school when she was kidnapped.

The woman thought for a minute, as if doing some kind of mental math. "2013," she finally answered and Angel let out a sympathetic sigh.

"Well then you've been down here for six years, I think it's well past time that you went home." She said and the woman gave a gasp, clearly despite having lost all track of time she hadn't thought it'd been that long.

"How-" she started to ask but Angel cut her off.

"I don't know, but we are getting out."

* * *

Justin was quiet the whole walk to school, something unusual for him. Karai knows that he's still adjusting to the whole idea of a baby but so is everyone. She thought about brining it up, but what is she supposed to say? She told him, she's told the guys, right now there is nothing she can say about the baby that isn't outright asking Justin why he's upset by it; and for all she knows he could just be in shock.

"You're quiet this morning," she finally decided on, Justin only shrugged in response. "Justin if the idea of me having a baby is bothering you could you please talk to me?" She asked of him.

"It's not!" He insisted, although she knew he was lying.

"Well then what's bugging you?" Karai asked but her son simply clamped his mouth shut.

"Justin," she said sternly but he still refused to speak, and by now they were at the school. "Fine, go to school. But we're going to talk about this later," she said

"Ok," Justin murmured, Karai bent down to give him a hug and he returned it stiffly, as if he didn't want her touching him. He then ran off as quick as he could, leaving his mother to stand in her spot, a mix of confusion and worry coursing through her.

* * *

"Ah!" Angel exclaimed as she suddenly landed back on the floor of her cell with a thud.

"Told you it wouldn't work, although I do give you credit for holding on that long." Her cellmate said, the ceiling of their cell was covered in cracks, some of them full on gashes. Angel's idea had been to try and pick apart the ceiling piece by piece, however that also involved keeping herself up there by slipping the fingers of one hand through a crack and holding on for dear life.

"I barely lasted a minute," Angel grumbled as she got to her feet, rubbing her lower back as she did so.

"That's a minute longer than I would've lasted," her cellmate replied and the younger girl simply rolled her eyes. "It's no use, we're deep underground. Even if we did escape they'd catch us long before we got out of the prison." The older woman continued but Angel just huffed again, she refuses to believe she's trapped down here forever.

* * *

Justin couldn't focus throughout the school day; he was too busy thinking about the new baby. Sure it's true that in the past he had asked his parents if they would ever had another baby, he had even been excited about the possibility when they wouldn't flat out say no and instead said maybe someday. But then he figured out what a new baby would mean for him. Luckily a game of tag at recess was enough to get his mind off it for a little while; that is until he tripped and fell.

"You might want to try tying your shoes," a voice suggested to him, he looked up to see the signature brown pigtails of Madeline Fitzgerald standing above him.

"I don't know how remember?" He snapped back at her, actually he does know how to tie his shoes but he's not very good at it.

"Oh right, do you want some help?" Madeline asked

"I thought you didn't know how either?" He asked more than said, while also wondering what the heck was going on, as Madeline almost always spends recess playing with her doll under the slide and is usually too shy to ever talk to anyone.

"I've been practicing, do you want help or not?" The girl snapped and so Justin conceded and allowed her to tie his shoe.

"Hey Madeline? Do you have any little brothers or sisters?" He asked as she tied his laces, she wasn't kidding about having practiced; she made a perfect knot.

"Yeah I have a little brother, most annoying creature on this planet." She said and Justin gulped.

"Why?" He asked and Madeline huffed.

"He's always messing with my stuff and getting in my way and I'm the one who gets in trouble for everything," she complained and Justin nodded but said nothing, because bad as that is his fears are about something much worse.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Hey guys! First off for anyone who read Baby of Mine and is now reading this, i love you and you are awesome! Second, so i originally posted this story to be set six years in the future, not four. But i was considering doing four and someone recently, and indirectly, pointed out to me that six years may have been too much of a skip so i've changed it. I apologize for any confusion and please let me know if there are any contradictions, but i think i have edited every reference to time so that it fits the new timeline, thanks!**


	4. Not What it Seems

"Ugh he won't talk to me," Karai said as she walked into her and Casey's bedroom later that night and found Casey already lying there. "He won't tell me what's bugging him and every time I bring it up he just shuts down, like the whole topic is an off switch for him." She continued while flopping down on the bed, placing her hands on her head and closing her eyes in frustration. But she didn't have a minute to just lie there and wallow in her own frustration before she felt a gentle hand on her abdomen. Moaning Karai cracked her eyes open enough to notice Casey's smirk as he rubbed small circles on her stomach.

"Come on you're going to have plenty of time to be miserable in a few months when I'm forcing you to stay in bed all day," he joked but she only moved her hands and placed them on top of the one he had on her stomach, lightly curling her fingers around his. She then lifted up her head solely so she could slam it back into her pillow.

"This is a disaster," She groaned

"What? No it's not. Karai it's still new," Casey tried to reason

"And how's it working out so far?" Karai all but snapped, catching Casey off guard. Karai sighed when she realized she had raised her voice. "Sorry but we've known about this baby for two days and so far Raph's on the edge of murdering us and our son may actually hate it." She exclaimed, taking her hands back and slamming them down on the mattress.

With that Casey sat up and pulled his girlfriend into his lap, quite literally too because she was more than content to just lie on her back and let misery consume her.

"Ok, it's a mess." He admitted, "I mean we haven't even been living together for a year, and we haven't had steady jobs for much longer. My sister is more or less a criminal and as usual the Kraang have some new plan! So you're right, adding a baby to the mix is like pouring oil on a fire." He agreed, he had one hand resting on Karai's thigh and so he moved the other back to where it had been earlier, pressed lightly against her stomach.

Karai glanced down at his hand, and bit back another groan. To be honest he's taking this a lot better than she thought he would, meanwhile she seems to just be plunging deeper and deeper into a state of frustration. With a sigh she again repeated her earlier action of covering Casey's hand with her own as she tried to relax against his chest.

"I can handle our lives being a barely functioning mess, that's old news. But what I can't handle is Justin not talking to me." She said and Casey sighed.

"Ok, you're not going to love hearing this but I think maybe we should just leave Justin alone for a little while." He suggested and Karai turned her head so she could look at him, "look I know you're worried about him, I am too, but when I had trouble adjusting to the program in school my dad sent me to a counselor. Every time the guy even mentioned reading I just clamped up, I wanted to just get out of that room not get used to it." He explained

"Casey a second kid is nothing like that room, he has to get used to it." Karai said

"I know but all I'm saying is that maybe he just needs a little space," Casey tried to reason and Karai sighed, but agreed.

* * *

About a week later Casey found himself out on patrol with the guys, and trying to avoid being 'accidently' pushed off a roof by Raph. The guy isn't angry about the baby, mostly because he knows Karai was right when she said he knew it was going to happen eventually, he just doesn't really know how he feels about it considering the manner in which he found out.

But suddenly Casey didn't have time to think about that, because a dagger went soaring right past his face. Stunned, he and the others turned around to see the all too familiar face of the latest purple dragon standing on the other end of the roof.

"Angel?" Casey asked, these days his relationship with his sister is complicated to say the least; but it's not like her to attack without backup.

"I'm only gonna say this once, I'm under new orders and those orders don't end with you coming out alive; so get lost before I do something I'll regret." She said coldly, grudgingly the turtles and Casey all drew their weapons.

"No offence kid but you're challenging us five on one," Raph commented but Angel only smirked before she threw another dagger, only missing Leo's head by an inch because he ducked.

At that Casey had to do a double take, two things in the situation were making less sense than usual. For one thing, yes Angel's a purple dragon. Yes, she's sent them marching back to the lair with more than a few injuries before; but she's never taken a kill shot. Secondly, she HATES when Raph calls her 'kid'. Casey mostly hung back and watched the fight, but he noticed something about his sister as he did so. She had gotten a LOT better since the last time he fought her. Normally it only took a little effort from one or two of them to overpower her, but so far she had taken both Mikey and Donnie down in ten seconds flat.

"Angel stop!" Leo pleaded with her, "We can help you!" He tried to remind her. They'd tried that before or course, Angel had practically lived at the lair throughout all of seventh grade.

But Angel simply smirked as she twisted the leader's arm at a painful angle and took him down.

"No thanks, I've got everything under control." She remarked and that was when Casey found himself joining the fight. He charged his sister, who was currently busy fighting Raph, and he pinned her against the gravel of the roof with his hockey stick.

"Angel come on! Dad's been worried sick about you!" He shouted in her face

"Sucks that dad's sick, but I don't care." She smirked before she wrapped her legs around her brother's waist and flipped him over her head; she was gone before Casey could get up.

* * *

"I'm telling you that wasn't Angel!" Casey exclaimed as he and the turtles finally made it back to the lair, Mikey was walking on his own but with a slight limp and while Donnie was ok he was sure that Leo's arm was going to need a sling.

"Really cause it sure as heck looked like her!" Raph shouted at his best friend as Donnie and Leo disappeared into the lab.

"Did it sound like her? Did-" Casey began to shout but Raph cut him off

"If you mean was that her voice, then yes." The turtle interrupted but Casey growled.

"No I mean did it really sound like her? She never lets you call her kid, but tonight she didn't say anything. Not to mention what she said about dad, they have their problems but she doesn't hate him!" He exclaimed and surprisingly Raph sighed with sympathy.

"Look man, I know it's hard having your sister out to kill you, believe me. But she makes her own choices and I know it hurts to not be able to stop her, but you can't. The only thing you can do is wait for her to come around." He advised and for a moment Casey considered it, and he wanted to point out how Raph had been dead against Karai at the start of things; but his better judgment told him not to.

"Hey guys, come check this out!" Mikey's excited voice cut through the conversation and the two turned to see him fiddling with the VCR. "I found a bunch of old tapes in a dumpster yesterday! They look pretty good!" He exclaimed as he hit play and his next cartoon obsession flicked to life on the screen.

"Hey I used to watch this," Casey commented as the familiar scene played before his eyes.

"Looks like a girl's show," Raph commented as the cartoon scene of what looked like a typical child's show about high school unfolded, until the main guy found his 'pet'. "What is that thing?" He asked, unfortunately at the same time in which the show said exactly what the animal was.

"Naked Mole Rat," Casey answered and then he watched as the Kim Possible theme song began to play.

* * *

Meanwhile, the boys had no idea how right Casey was, because the real Angel was ramming all her weight into the solid door of her cell.

"All that's going to do is leave a giant bruise," her cellmate said as she hit the door for the fourth time.

"Ugh!" Angel let out a feral sound of defeat as she leaned her back heavily against the door and slid down to the ground.

Her cellmate looked at her with sympathy, the woman typically kept her distance and so she barely took more than one step closer to Angel, but one step is better than nothing.

"Listen kid, I know you don't want to hear it but this is it. We're stuck here." She said gently but Angel just snarled as she got to her feet.

"I am not a kid," she said dangerously, "and I WILL get out of here."

* * *

 **Author's Note: Hey guys, i apologize for this chapter being so short, i promise the next one will be longer!**


	5. A Growing Family

It was a usual day of training in the lair, or as usual as it could be. When they all traveled back in time they may have been able to stop the Triceratons but they were still too late to save their Sensei, and the fact that they hadn't seen Shredder since was hardly worth it. That being said it had taken them a while to figure out a system of training considering they no longer have Splinter to make the exercises. What they eventually did was since Leo's the leader and is always in the field he would decide what they did because he knows what needs work, but since Karai isn't out in the field and Justin can't last in training as long as the adults, obviously, she kept her eyes on everything.

Right now it was still early in training, but warm ups were done. Leo was sparring with Mikey, Donnie was against April, and Casey against Raph. Meanwhile Justin was training but what he was doing could hardly be considered a spare, considering Karai was fighting on her knees and was still beating him. By now she was three months pregnant, and while Casey and Leo weren't too keen on her sparring even with Justin she just ignored them; reasoning that Justin was in more danger when she put him in that sling than this baby is right now. Of course Leo had tried reasoning that constant danger was the reason she quit the team in the first place but of course she didn't listen to him. She figured that at only three months along and just barely showing, Justin would have to give her a powerful and direct kick to the stomach to do any harm, which he would never do. Instead he was aiming most of his punches at her head, and she was blocking every single one of them.

"Ninjistu is about more than giving your opponent a black eye Justin, if you can't get me with a headshot aim somewhere else." She encouraged him and so with a nod the boy aimed a kick at his mother's right knee, which she blocked by straightening out her leg and tripping him.

"Never let your opponent read your next move," she said as her son picked himself up off the ground, grumbling to himself as he did so.

"Can I be done for today?" He whined

"Nope," Karai answered and Justin sighed before he got back into his fighting stance.

* * *

"So how's the new job going?" Karai later asked April when training was over and everyone was off doing their own things. Mikey had gotten Justin into that old Disney show he found on tape, Leo and Donnie were in the lab, Raph and Casey had gone off into the sewer but to do what they didn't say, and so April and Karai were just hanging around in the kitchen where Karai made Justin a sandwich for lunch.

"Ok, but I don't think it really classifies as a job considering I don't get paid." April answered; her new 'job' was an internship at the news station for channel six. She isn't exactly sure how she wound up studying journalism but she likes it so it's not like she's complaining.

"Still something," Karai said with a shrug as she finished cutting the sandwich she was making. "Justin, lunch is ready!" She called into the living room.

"Can I eat it in here?" Justin's voice came calling back.

"Sure but come get it yourself!" Karai answered him.

April couldn't help but smirk at the exchange, over the past few years she had found that she really enjoyed watching Karai interact with her son. He brought out this whole other side of her, he and Casey both did. When she's around them it's like she can't help but smile or laugh, they make her happy and considering the person she was before it's a really nice thing to see.

"How are you doing?" The red head asked and for a moment Karai didn't seem to know what she was talking about, and it clicked just as Justin entered the room so she kept her mouth shut for an extra minute.

"Thanks mom," Justin said as he grabbed his plate and hurried back off into the living room.

"You're welcome," Karai called after him before she turned her attention back to April. "I'm ok, getting over the shock." She responded

"That must have been scary, the night the Kraang took you and…" April trailed off, unsure of if this should even be a conversation or not.

Karai sighed as she began putting away the jar of peanut butter and anything else she had used when making Justin's lunch, normally she wasn't one to clean up right away, as she knows Mikey will see Justin with food and decide to come make his own. But she needed to distract herself; she could not put all her focus onto that night.

"You have no idea," she admitted, "I found out I was pregnant that morning," April's eyes widened at the new information, neither Karai or Casey had talked about how long they had known for before the Kraang attack; for it to have just been a few hours was a shock to April. "I was terrified enough already; I mean I know we're not teenagers anymore and even if we were it's not like I wasn't a teen mom. But our lives are so crazy, and… I was just wondering why this had to happen." She confessed, leaning on the table and burying her head in her hands as she remembered that morning.

* * *

 _Karai was going to kill Casey if he didn't hurry up. He had an early job this morning, and so she asked him if he could drop Justin off at school on his way and he said it would be no problem. It was perfect. She needed them both out of the apartment, she could NOT stand the idea of taking a pregnancy test only to have Casey or Justin start pounding on the bathroom door. But of course nothing, not even this simple thing, can ever go according to plan. Casey overslept and at this rate he's going to be running late and she'll have to run Justin down to school then go straight to work. She didn't want to be rude and start yelling at Casey to get a move on more than usual, can't have him suspecting anything, but god if he didn't hurry up she was honestly going to kill him._

 _"Come on dad let's go!" Justin whined, so it wasn't just her nerves Casey was getting on._

 _"I'm coming!" Casey yelled as he came stumbling out of the bedroom, Karai couldn't help but face palm when she saw that he only had one boot tied. "Bye," he said to his girlfriend as he and Justin hurried out the door, Karai just rolled her eyes and waited until she was sure neither of them would be coming back for any reason before she hurried for the bathroom._

 _As she felt around the top shelf of the bathroom closet, the one where she kept her things, she recounted the events that had led her to this. First there was her period, or lack thereof in this case. However that hadn't worried her in the least, due to her rigorous training schedule her period had been extremely irregular and pretty much random all her life and it wasn't unusual for her to miss one every once in a while. But that aside it is unusual for her to wake up every morning and sprint to the bathroom because she felt the sudden urge to vomit. At first she just thought it might have been something she ate, or even just something random. However when she spent a combined total of an hour throwing up the first day this happened she crossed random off the list. Still convinced it was something she ate, and still nauseous for the remainder of the morning, she didn't eat too much that day. Then it happened again yesterday, and that was when she started to fear the dreaded idea of pregnancy. Just then she found what she was looking for._

 _Taking the test should not have taken as long as it did, but technically that was not her fault. She'd been trained since she was younger than Justin that if she was on a mission it was NEVER ok to stop and use the bathroom, even if it were an absolute emergency. Long story short, she is terrible at forcing herself to go to the bathroom. Finally though she took the stupid test and placed it on the bathroom sink, then proceeded to pace the bathroom for three agonizingly long minutes as she awaited the results._

 _"Ok, calm down Karai." She said to herself, because apparently she had been reduced to this. "It's not like you haven't been in worse situations, and it's not like you don't have a kid already. Of course you've never literally had a kid, but that's beside the point. Besides, aside from Angel signing on with the purple dragons things have been good lately, maybe this wouldn't be so bad." She tried to tell herself, and she almost believed herself. But when the timer on her phone went off she picked up the test with her eyes closed, then slowly opened them until she saw the two little lines appear on the screen; she was pregnant._

 _When her heart practically sank and all the air left her body Karai realized that she hadn't actually expected the test to be positive, she had expected it to be nothing more than her usual, screwed up system. But it wasn't. Convinced that the test had to be a false positive she grabbed another one from the shelf, she kept a total of five up there. This time she was much more nervous as she waited for the results, and she spent the time pacing around the bathroom once again only unlike last time instead of giving herself a pep talk she repeatedly told herself that this could not be happening._

 _"Oh who am I kidding? Of course it can be!" She finally exclaimed, as if to knock some sense into herself. "This is WAY beyond possible!" She continued and just then her timer cut her off, and she rushed to look at the test._

 _Another positive._

 _She repeated this process one more time before finally collapsing against the closed bathroom door and sliding to the ground, the third test clutched tightly in her fist as she finally began to accept the facts._

 _Two missed periods, three mornings spent hunched over the toilet, a few recent memories that this scenario could've come from, and three positive tests._

 _She was pregnant._

* * *

"But then," she continued to explain, finally looking up to meet April's gaze. "There was this chance that it was gone, and all I could think about was how much I wanted it to be safe." She finished, a slightly embarrassed smile crossing her face but April just smiled back.

"You're lucky Karai," she finally said and the kunoichi's face turned to one of confusion. "I know this is nothing like what you thought your life would be like, but you're lucky. You're only twenty-two and you've already been able to be a great mom, both to Justin and this baby." She continued and Karai just chuckled.

"Not that I regret either of my kids, because I don't, but if you get yourself knocked up by the time you're twenty-two I will read you the right act." She said jokingly, she had no clue what exactly the red head was getting at, because it sounded deeper than a random compliment, but she figured she might as well have some fun with that.

"Don't worry, I don't think I'll ever have kids." April said and at that Karai's smile faltered.

"What? April you love kids. Besides you're not even out of school yet, you don't need to worry about that stuff right now," She reminded her friend.

"I know; that's not what I meant." April hastily said before her whole demeanor became uncomfortable. "I meant that… I'm a half human, half Kraang mutant. I don't think I can have kids," she explained, wrapping her arms around herself.

"April. Your mom was a human-Kraang mutant and so was your grandfather; they were able to have kids." Karai said, her voice serious. "And don't even give me that _I won't put my kids through that_ crap. If there is one thing I learned with Justin it's that not having kids due to fear is the same as letting your enemies take them away." She said and April sighed but nodded, knowing that her friend was right.

"Besides, with two ninja parents I'm sure your kids would be just fine." Karai smirked before she turned around and began looking in the refrigerator, mostly just so she could laugh to herself without April seeing.

"Let it go Karai, we're just friends." April huffed as the kunoichi turned back around, for years now she had been bugging her about her feelings about Donnie; the ones she insists she doesn't have.

"Right, you've only kissed him more than enough times because that's what friends do." Karai pointed out

"Karai," April growled and so her friend raised her hands in surrender, for now.

"Fine whatever," she muttered before heading off into the living room.

* * *

Meanwhile Raph and Casey had wandered far from the lair, and once he felt that he had gone far enough without an explanation Raph spoke up.

"Ok you dragged me out here, what's this about?" He demanded and as Casey stopped he let out a nervous sigh, here goes nothing.

 _More like here goes everything,_ he thought to himself after the familiar saying had crossed his mind, because he has everything to lose here. "I wanted to talk to you, about Karai." He began,

"If you want me to take a crack at sidelining her forget it, she's going to keep training until she decides she's done." Raph said,

"No that's not it, believe me I know telling her to sit out training is a waste of breath." Casey said, "Its just… look since Splinter's gone and Karai's the oldest I don't really know who I should talk to about this-"

"Whatever this is about Leo's the leader, and second oldest." Raph interrupted

"I know and I will talk to him, I might even talk to Mikey and Donnie too. But you're the most protective of her, and you're my best friend, your opinion counts to me more than anyone's." He said and at that Raph was even more confused, because despite the friend comment he could tell by Casey's voice that during this conversation they weren't talking as friends, but instead Casey was talking to Karai's brother.

"Dude, I already know you knocked up my sister and I'm pretty sure my opinion of that doesn't count for anything." Raph pointed out and Casey just sighed heavily in frustration.

"Not that, although if you didn't hate it-"

"I don't," Raph cut Casey off, "I'm a little ticked that I found out because I walked in on Donnie giving her an ultrasound but it's been four years, I know you're not gonna walk out on her." He finished and Casey grinned before he became nervous again.

"That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about," he admitted, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck while Raph just arched an eyebrow. "I know that under the circumstances it might seem like I'm doing this because I have too, but I'm not. I love Karai and I never want to leave her-"

"Spit it out Jones," Raph interrupted his stuttering friend.

"I just… I want to ask Karai to marry me," Casey finally said.


	6. The Good, The Bad, and The Past

To say that Raph was in shock would be a huge understatement; he was somewhere WAY past complete and total disbelief. He had never really expected his sister and Casey to break up, not at this point anyway. But he also had never, ever, thought they would ever even consider getting married.

"Raph? You ok man?" Casey asked, bringing the turtle back to reality.

"Huh? Yeah sorry Casey, you just caught me way off guard." The turtle said before clearing his throat. "Look I think it's a great idea, as long as you're sure and you're not just doing it because you feel like you're supposed to-"

"Raph I swear I'm not," Casey interrupted, "I've been thinking about it for awhile, since before I knew she was pregnant. I'm not exactly sure when I'd ask her, I was thinking maybe I'd even wait until after the kid is born, but I need to know that you're ok with it." He explained and Raph couldn't help the pride and honor he felt at the fact that Casey had come to him with this before Leo, or at all.

"Talk to Leo, but I'm cool with it." Raph said with a grin.

Casey was about to say something when his phone went off, and he pulled it out to see Mickey's I.D.

"What Mick?" He asked

"I'm at your apartment, where are you?" Her voice demanded on the other end.

"I'm uh… we're with Karai's family." He answered; he knew that Mickey knows better than to ask questions about Karai's family.

"Ok, ok sorry." She apologized, "I'll talk to you later then, when do you think you're going to be home?" She asked

"I don't know, why?" Casey questioned, he could've sworn he heard some mix of panic and tears in her voice.

"It's uh… it's nothing. You know what, never mind. I'll just, I'll just go, go see my mom." Mickey said, now that worried Casey. Mickey and her mother don't exactly have a great relationship, so if Mickey was considering going to the woman with a problem then things must be bad.

"Mick what's wrong?" He asked and that was when he heard his friend breaking down on the other end of the phone.

"Damian. He hit me," she choked out and at first Casey didn't understand.

"Mickey you and Damian always hit each other," he said, recalling how his two friends have a history of playfully punching each other in the arms or even lightly eating each other upside the head.

"No Casey, I mean he really hit me." She said and only then did Casey understand what happened.

* * *

They left Justin with the guys; it wasn't hard to get him to jump at the chance to have a sleepover at his Uncle's. When they got home Casey and Karai found their friend sitting on the hallway floor outside their apartment, dried tears staining her face. The second she saw her friends Mickey got to her feet.

"You didn't have to come back, I could've gone to my mom's." She said as Casey opened the apartment door.

"Mickey we were just hanging around with my brothers," Karai said, she loved how she could talk to Mickey about her family without the girl asking any questions. Back in high school she had warned Mickey that her family was complicated, and the girl hadn't asked a question since. Karai had told her that she had brothers, and she had probably figured out they were all around the same age. She had told Mickey about it when her father died, and Mickey never asked why they weren't having a funeral. They did have one, of course, but not one Mickey could've known about.

"Still," Mickey muttered as her friends led her into their apartment.

They sat her down on the couch, Karai sitting on one side of her while Casey sat himself down on the coffee table in front of her. Leaning forward Mickey rested her elbows on her knees and masked her face with her hands, the tears starting to come back to her. This just doesn't make sense; she had been with Damian since they were fourteen, through everything. He had been there when her dad walked out, not that he wasn't basically absent in her life already. She had been there through his PTSD; from borderline dragging him to his living room to be with his family because he was so withdrawn, to answering his calls at two in the morning just to tell him whatever nightmare he'd had was only a dream. On top of all that she knows him better than anyone, he'd never hurt a fly.

"I just don't get it," she finally said, "After the Kraang he practically shut down, I couldn't read him for awhile you know?" She more asked then said but Casey nodded, understanding. "He's never been what he was before the Kraang, but I never expected him to be. He got better and things have been great the past couple years, but for the past few weeks he's just been… different. I don't know what's going on but he's not himself." She said and briefly Casey flashed back to his fight with Angel just three weeks ago, because he still knows that that wasn't Angel.

"Karai, can I talk to you for a minute?" Casey asked his girlfriend as he got up and headed for the hall.

Karai looked confused at first, what did he have to say that had to be said now? But regardless Mickey nodded for her to go, and so she got up and followed Casey.

"What?" She practically snapped; annoyed Casey picked literally the worst time for a private conversation.

"I think something's up," he said

"No kidding! A guy who refuses to set mouse traps just smacked his girlfriend!" She exclaimed

"I know and a couple of weeks ago I ran into Angel and she had suddenly become a better fighter and lost any good that was left in her," Casey argued but Karai continued to look at him like he was crazy.

"What do Angel and Damian have to do with each other?" She questioned

"I don't know, I just think it's strange that two people in our lives have both suddenly turned into people we don't recognize." He argued and Karai gave a sigh,

"Casey we haven't really recognized Angel in over a year," she reminded him

"Karai this was different. I looked into her eyes and it looked like she wasn't even there, like she was just some empty shell." He said and with another sigh Karai turned and went back into the little living room area of the apartment, this time taking Casey's seat on the coffee table.

"Mickey, what exactly happened to make him hit you?" She asked and Mickey shrugged.

"The usual. We were arguing over where to move the couch, we used to laugh when we argued over something like that but today he wouldn't, he hasn't in weeks. Then I called him a stubborn pain in the neck, not meanly, I was laughing. He still wasn't so I asked him what was wrong; he said it was nothing. We went back and forth on that for awhile until finally he just slapped me, right across the face. I just stared at him for a minute and he was stone cold, didn't look like he regretted it at all. I grabbed my shoes, I left, and this was the first place I thought to come." She explained ad Karai leaned forward to wrap her friend in a hug, after all these years she's still not the most emotionally open person, but this was an exception. Mickey clung tightly to her, as if afraid that letting go would send her back to her own apartment.

"I'm sorry," she said through her tears

"Why? You didn't do anything," Karai asked, pulling out of the hug to look at her friend.

"I know but I feel bad because you were with your family-" Karai cut her off by yanking her into another hug, this time holding her tightly.

"We were just hanging out, you need us more." She said softly, Mickey cried a little more before she finally pulled out of the hug.

* * *

"So Justin? Are you excited to get a little brother or sister?" Mikey questioned his nephew as the two of them played Mario Kart.

"Uh sure," Justin responded.

"Sure? Come on dude you're going to be a big brother!" The orange clad turtle exclaimed but it didn't seem to excite the little boy beside him in the least, therefor he kept trying. "Look I know stuff on TV makes it look like siblings are a pain, and they are. But they're also the best people in the world! You can prank them, pull pranks with them, plus babies are messy so if you make a mess your parents get mad you can just say the baby did it!" He exclaimed but he then seemed to reconsider what he had just said, "be careful with that last one though, it only works part of the time." He added, remembering all the messes he had blamed Justin for when the boy was younger, and how Karai almost always saw through it.

"Don't listen to him," Raph's voice came from behind the two, he jumped down and sat on the other side of Justin. "Any three of those things will get you into mountains of trouble. You prank them; you get in trouble. You pull pranks with them; you get in trouble. You try and blame them for something; you get in more trouble than you were in already." He continued, "Other things you get in trouble for; getting mad when they touch your stuff, trying to keep them away from your bed, getting mad when they break your stuff, and defending yourself, even with words." He listed off, the virtual race had long since ended but Mikey hadn't bothered to start another one yet.

"Please, that is so not true." The youngest turtle claimed and Raph just glared at him in disbelief.

"Oh yeah? And how would you know?" He challenged

"I would know because I have four brothers and one sister, and I never got in trouble for any of that stuff." Mikey replied, unaware of how much his brother's blood was boiling right now.

"Yeah and you're also the baby, the rest of us got in trouble for that stuff because we're older." Raph pointed out, ordinarily he would've blown up at his brother for calling him a liar, but the knowledge that there was no way Mikey could win this argument kept his anger at bay. He had learned by now that if he wanted to win he had to tell himself that he just needed to wait until the end of the argument to let out his anger, by which time if he won it had turned to smugness.

"By what? Like five minutes or something?" Mikey demanded

"Five minutes or five years, it doesn't matter. Growing up we all got the 'you must set an example' speech more than enough times, ask any of the guys. Karai even heard it once or twice thanks to a couple of your screw-ups she was involved in." Raph explained, which effectively shattered Mikey's whole illusion of how great their childhood had been.

"Wait what do you mean 'you must set an example'?" He asked, Raph simply groaned and ran a hand over his face.

"Every time one of us screwed up and you were involved, even a couple cases in which you weren't involved, Splinter would punish us and then proceed to guilt trip us by saying we had to set an example for our brothers. A.K.A our younger brothers, which primarily meant you." He said, "Don't get me wrong, that also includes Donnie and in Leo's case me, when Karai got the speech it included all four of us. But the point is you're the youngest, you weren't expected to set an example for anyone. Every punishment you ever got, we got it and we got it worse." He said and finally it looked like Mikey was done arguing, unfortunately for Raph it wasn't until then that he realized how upset his nephew looked.

"But, annoying as little brothers and I'm assuming little sisters are, Mikey's right about them being the best people in the world. Sure sometimes it seems like they're mission in life is to ruin yours, but they'll do anything they can to make you happy. They'll always have your back, and you're never lonely for very long." He said but that didn't seem to help at all, so Raph placed a hand on Justin's shoulder but the boy still wouldn't look up at him. "Don't worry Justin, in the end younger siblings are pretty cool."

* * *

"You're out of your mind if you think I'm letting you use yourself as bait for the purple dragons," a voice said from behind Casey as he stood alone on the rooftops that night, a voice he did not want to hear.

He turned around and lifted up his mask, getting a clear look at his girlfriend who stood at the other side of the roof.

"Ugh, isn't that baby supposed to make you a heavier sleeper or something?" He groaned upon realizing he'd been caught looking for his sister.

"Ok one, no it just makes me tired. Second, Angel's not coming so lets go home." Karai said as she walked over to him.

"This is why I'm worried. Angel has a talent for finding me when I'm out here, but I've been out here for two hours and she's not here!" He exclaimed

"I know, I've been watching you for two hours." Karai muttered and Casey just groaned, "but maybe you're right that something's up." She suggested and Casey just looked skeptically at her. "Angel's mixed in with some pretty intense stuff, and maybe Damian started chasing the Kraang again. I think it's worth looking into, but please don't disappear in the middle of the night." She said and Casey chuckled as he placed his hands on his girlfriend's hips and kissed her.

"Ok I won't, mostly because if I do you're going to keep coming after me and putting yourself in danger." He said and Karai smirked before she kissed him, but had to pull away because she was still smiling against his lips.

"Come on Jones, you know I'm not the one you're worried about." She said

"You're not the ONLY one I'm worried about, but I am still worried about you, always will be." He said as Karai tangled her fingers in his.

"You're sweet," she murmured before giving him another kiss, "Stupid, but sweet." She said as she pulled away just slightly and Casey smirked.

"You know Justin's out of the house all night," He said suggestively and Karai chuckled in response.

"True but Mickey is on our couch," She reminded her boyfriend, Mickey hadn't wanted to go home, not that either Casey or Karai would've let her. She had said she would go to her mother's, but her mom hadn't approved of her moving in with Damian in the first place and so the last thing she needed right now was that battle.

"Mickey is also the heaviest sleeper in the world, besides we never wake Justin." Casey reasoned

"That's because we rarely ever do anything when Justin's home," Karai pointed out, "but alright," she agreed and with that she and Casey left the rooftop and returned home through they're bedroom window.

"You know, follow me or not you're not going to be climbing through windows much longer." Casey remarked as Karai followed him through the window.

"Do you want me to slap you?" She asked and he just chuckled as he grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to him, her resisting slightly but playfully.

"No Casey if you're going to be mean-" she tried to say through her smirk but it was no use and she was cut off by her own laughter when Casey slipped one hand underneath her shirt and began tickling her.

"Come on I'm not mean," Casey fake pleaded before the two of them fell back onto their bed.

"You can be," Karai laughed but Casey only smirked.

"Well then we're even, because so can you."

* * *

Meanwhile down in the sewer, despite the late hour, a little six-year-old boy was sitting at the entrance to his Uncle's underground home; working up the courage to take off down the tunnels. But he didn't work up the courage fast enough, and before he knew it he was caught.

"Justin?" A curious voice said from behind him, the little boy jumped as he turned to see his Uncle Donnie standing behind him.

"Oh hey," he said as his Uncle approached him.

"Why aren't you in bed buddy?" Donnie asked his nephew but he only shrugged. This left Donnie a little unsure of what to do, but eventually he decided to sit down on the step along side Justin.

"Uncle Donnie, what was I like before?" The little boy suddenly asked, looking up at his Uncle.

Donnie had no clue how to respond to that, he had a pretty good idea what Justin meant, but no idea how to answer it.

"Before what buddy?" He finally said. Who knows, children are unpredictable and so maybe this wasn't about what Donnie thought.

"Before the Kraang made me human, when I was a mutant." He clarified, so it was what Donnie thought.

Telling Justin about his creation, that had been a hard choice but it was one Casey and Karai had been forced to make not long after their son turned two. Things were relatively quiet for a few months following the humans return to the city, which had given Casey and Karai some time not only to focus on school but also on some crucial decisions about Justin's future. For one thing Donnie had to forge a birth certificate for the boy; which resulted in a conversation about picking a full name for the boy, as up until that point he only had a first name. But the choice to tell him about his creation, that had been a harder choice. Casey had been against it at first, but Karai was persistent. She didn't want Justin growing up not knowing something so significant about himself; Casey had argued that it actually isn't significant at all but Karai's response to that was that it would be to Justin, and Casey couldn't argue that. So they told him, they let him grow up knowing, and everyone knew that in the long run that is what's best. But right now, the long run isn't helping Donnie.

"Justin, we've told you what you were like." He finally said but Justin only frowned

"Not really," he whined, "Mommy told me that she made me on accident, but on purpose too. That I was supposed to be a distraction and she never thought she would see me again, or that I would ever be human." He continued, there was a little more to that story than Justin what was telling, his mom always ends it by saying she never could've known that the mutant she created that night was actually her baby, but she couldn't be more happy that he was; these days he isn't so sure he believes that part. "But what was I like?" He pleaded with his Uncle, "Was I bad?" He asked and Donnie let out a sigh, he is not a particularly good at sugarcoating.

"You were a problem," he admitted, "we needed to get out of that building, back then you're mom was fighting against us so we needed to stop her, and you stopped us." He said, being careful of his words when describing Karai that night, as Justin still doesn't really understand why his mother used to work for Shredder. "But you weren't bad, you were just a scared baby." He continued, though Justin didn't seem to believe it. "You were, you were screaming just like a new born baby, if anyone was bad it was us. We hurt you, and we shouldn't have." The genius turtle continued and this time Justin looked up at him.

"You're not bad Uncle Donnie," he said and at that Donnie smirked.

"Thanks buddy, neither are you." He said before standing up and holding out his hand to Justin. "Now come on and get back to bed," he said and so Justin accepted his Uncle's hand and allowed himself to be led back to bed, admittedly feeling a little better.


	7. Hidden Scars

"Ok why is Mikey asking me if Splinter ever told me I was supposed to set an example for you guys?" Karai questioned Donnie the next morning when she arrived to pick up her son and instead was met with the strange questions from her youngest brother.

"Don't ask," Donnie said from his seat, he was in his lab going over some upgrades to the ultrasound machine, though considering Karai can go see an actual doctor he's not sure he'll even need the upgrades.

"Alright then, hey did you ever take a look at the other files on that flash drive?" She asked

"Not really, why?" Donnie questioned, momentarily pausing his work as his sister stepped deeper into the lab.

She gave a sigh, as if she didn't really believe what she was about to say, maybe she didn't. "A few weeks ago you guys said Angel wasn't quite herself?" She asked more than stated and Donnie simply nodded. "Last night, Damian slapped Mickey clean across the face, and she said that he didn't look like he regretted it for a second." She confessed and Donnie couldn't help but gasp.

"Karai that's awful," he said, when she and Casey left last night they had told them there was an emergency with one of their friends; but Donnie never would've guessed it was that.

"But that isn't like Damian!" Karai nearly shouted before she lowered her voice, fully aware of her unintended outburst and choosing to blame it on pregnancy hormones. "Angel fights the Kraang on a daily basis and Damian has more or less been hunting them since high school. Do you think it's possible that the Kraang got them and maybe they were, I don't know, brainwashed or something?" She suggested and while she thought Donnie would outright reject the idea, he actually seemed to consider it.

"That would explain Angel's suddenly enhanced strength and skill, and from the things you've told me over the years Damian isn't typically the violent type." He said; he was currently sitting in his chair with the wheels on the bottom, the one that Mikey and Justin are no longer allowed to touch. So he wheeled himself over from the ultrasound machine to his desk where he grabbed the flash drive and then wheeled over to the computer where he began to comb through the files. "It's a little hard to tell since they're only labeled in Kraang language," he commented as Karai came to stand over his shoulder. "But… THERE!" He suddenly exclaimed

"What?" Karai asked

"That's Angel's DNA pattern," Donnie replied in shock, off the top of his head he normally wouldn't be able to recognize Angel's DNA as anything more than familiar but it was much easier considering he could see that the only other sets of DNA on this flash drive he should recognize belonged to Karai and Casey, and the file he was looking at was that of a fourteen year old girl.

* * *

"Give it up," a very annoyed twenty-one year old prisoner said to her much younger cellmate after the girl nearly broke her shoulder trying to break down the metallic door that kept them contained.

"No," Angel huffed as she got back to her feet, "No," she said again but her legs buckled underneath her and sent her collapsing back to the ground.

The older woman stared at the girl with sympathy before getting down next to her.

"Angel you need to stop," she said seriously but Angel shook her head.

"No, I can't." She said as she tried to catch her breath, she had been trying to break down that door for over half an hour now and had made no progress. "I saw their plans." She confessed and at that the eyes of her cellmate widened. "Those clones of us they send back to the surface, they only look like us. On the inside they're like these super soldiers." She began to explain, beginning to feel as though she had somehow found herself trapped in a comic book. "They're supposed to be indestructible, and strong enough to lift a truck. Once the Kraang have enough they're going to reveal the clones for what they are, and bye-bye earth."

* * *

"Yeah, that's about the same reaction I had." Raph laughed, he, Casey, and Leo were currently standing around the table/counter in the kitchen and Casey had just asked Leo his opinion on asking Karai to marry him.

Leo had reacted similarly to the way Raph had, his jaw hung slightly open, his eyes bulged out, and unlike Raph he was unfortunate enough to be holding a plate, which he dropped and shattered upon hearing what Casey had to say.

"So is that a no?" Casey asked as Leo gathered up the shattered remains of his plate.

"No, I mean that's not a no. Just, you're sure this is what you want to do?" The leader asked from the ground.

"Yes I'm sure, Leo I've been with her for four years, if I was gonna leave I would've done it by now." He said, his voice maybe a little too defensive. But that wasn't on purpose, he's just getting kind of sick of feeling like he has to justify his decision because the guys might think he's only asking her because she's pregnant, well he's not! "Look Leo," he said in a much calmer tone, "I love Karai, I've been in love with her for the past four years. I know this is some pretty awkward timing, but I swear I was thinking about this months ago." He said, watching Leo closely as he dumped the plate scraps into the trash bin.

"Did you get a ring yet?" The oldest turtle asked and Casey shook his head.

"I wanted to talk to you guys first," He replied and for the first time since this conversation began Leo cracked a smile.

"Did you honestly think we were going to tell you no?" He asked and at the sound of that Casey's smile grew wider than Leo's.

"You're serious?" He asked, honestly no, he hadn't expected the turtles to say no. But the fear had still been there, especially under the circumstances.

Leo clasped a hand onto his friend's shoulder, his grin still in place. "Casey not only do I know that you love Karai but I give you a lot of respect for talking to us about this." The leader said but Casey only looked at him confused.

"Leo you're her brothers, I had to talk to at least one of you." He said and before anything else could be said Mikey came hurrying into the room.

"Casey, I got a question for you!" The youngest turtle exclaimed, dead set on asking his friend if he had grown up being told he was supposed to set an example for his sister.

"Actually Mikey, I think Casey has a question for you." Raph said, ever since his conversation with Mikey last night the younger turtle was almost hell bent on proving that his older brothers hadn't grown up the way they had, and he was sick of it.

Taking the hint, Casey turned his attention to the youngest turtle.

"What do you think about me asking Karai to marry me?" He asked and while Mikey's face lite up Casey's attention was turned to the sight of his son entering the room, and hearing the question. "What do you think buddy?" He asked, he didn't know what he expected Justin to say, but he certainly didn't expect him to run.

But that's what he did. He stood frozen for a second, starring at his father, unable to believe what he had just heard, then he ran. He bolted from the room, from the lair, and down the sewer. He kept running, even after he heard the voices of his parents coming after him.

* * *

Karai and Donnie were still in the lab when they heard someone go running by, Justin by the sounds of it. At first they didn't think anything of it, figured he was probably playing some game, until they heard Casey chasing after him.

"What the-?" Karai began but she stopped herself when she heard the turnstiles, then she raced out after them.

The instant she was in the subway tunnels she could see Casey, and Justin far ahead of him.

"Justin!" She shouted, along with Casey as she ran after her son. "Justin!" She shouted again, far ahead of her Casey wasn't having better luck and before either of them knew it their son was climbing the ladder to the surface.

* * *

Justin knew he shouldn't have done this, but he needed to get away. He doesn't belong here, not anymore. His mom and dad, or maybe he should say Karai and Casey, want to get married. Karai is going to have a baby; they're going to be a family. A family that he doesn't have a place in. So he ran, he ran up to the surface and down the sidewalk. He ran into an alley so that he would lose his pursuers, and he hid behind the dumpster in that alley without realizing that he wasn't alone.

"You ok?" A voice came from the fire escape above him, causing Justin to jump.

"AH!" He exclaimed before he realized that looking down at him was none other than Madeline Fitzgerald. "Oh, it's just you." He breathed in relief; Madeline then proceeded to jump down from the fire escape, barely cushioning her landing with her hands.

"Did you run away or something?" She asked and he nodded, so she drew closer. "Why?" She asked as she sat down in front of him, for a minute he only gave a sigh before responding.

"I don't think my mom and dad want me anymore," he huffed but she only looked confused.

"Why not?" She asked

"Because my mom's having a baby!" Justin exclaimed like it was obvious

"But why don't they want you anymore?" Madeline questioned.

Justin opened his mouth to reply but no words came out, he couldn't tell her. He had sworn he'd never tell anyone. As if reading his mind Madeline placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him.

"Don't worry about it," she said and then she leaned in to give him a hug. Her arms clung tightly around his neck, really tightly in fact. The next thing Justin knew he was struggling for air, and then his whole world went black.

* * *

Casey and Karai made it to the surface, Karai having caught up with her boyfriend, but there was no sign of Justin. They ran down the sidewalk, for the most part crashing into people as they went, but they didn't care.

"Oh no," Casey finally said as he skidded to a stop, Karai stopping along with him.

"What?" She questioned but he didn't need to answer, his eyes were locked on a TCRI van driving down the street.

"Come on!" She said urgently, with every intention of chasing down the van, but Casey grabbing her wrist stopped her.

"What are you doing?"

"Are you insane?"  
They both demanded of each other at the same time.

"Am I insane?!" Karai asked incredulously, "The Kraang just drove by us and there's a good chance they have our son!" She shouted at him, somehow the surrounding New Yorkers were oblivious to the two young adults arguing about the Kraang in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Karai go back to the lair and tell the guys to meet me at TCRI," Casey ordered in a warning tone.

"Like hell I will!" She snapped, "I'll call them and tell them to meet us there," she attempted to compromise but Casey growled only in frustration.

"Karai you can't go!" He all but shouted

"Why not?" She demanded; he was still holding her left wrist so she placed her other hand on her hip. Casey just glared at her in response, and she got the message. "Casey the baby will be fine!" She snapped, trying to keep her voice at a civil volume.

"Karai we've already got one kid in danger, the last thing we need is you putting the other one in danger." Casey said but in response Karai finally yanked her wrist free of his grasp.

For a moment she was tempted to listen to him, their last encounter with the Kraang had been one of the scariest experiences of her life. Finding out she had been raised by a murder had been terrifying, finding out she was a mother the first time around had been extremely scary, opening her heart up to Casey had been just as bad, finding out she was pregnant had completely petrified her, but thinking that her baby had died before it even saw the light of day; that had taken the cake. So obviously she could understand why Casey's so worried; there is so much out in the field that they can't control, anything that can seriously hurt her could probably kill their child. Her better judgment told her to listen to Casey and go back to the lair, let the boys handle this. Unfortunately her pride almost never agrees with her better judgment, and Karai has a history of listening to her pride.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Hey guys! Ok first off i want to thank everyone for the great reviews that are being left, i'm so glad you like this story! Second, to answer jasmine v's question, no we fanfic author's do not make money doing this, we do it because it's fun and we love to write! Lastly i just want to you guys to know that i've had a pretty bad case of writer's block lately and i'm not entirely sure what to include in the next couple chapters (i have some things planned but not nearly enough) so please let me know if there's anything specific that you want to see and i'll try to find a place for it!**


	8. Discoveries

When Justin woke up he was alone inside a very dark room lit only by pink Kraang lights, therefor he panicked.

"Ok, calm down Justin. Maybe, maybe mom and dad do want you and they'll come save you." He said to himself, trying to keep himself from hyperventilating. "But then, then I'm in a lot of trouble." He whimpered as the consequences of his actions began to dawn on him.

He's been thinking, reasoning that despite what his mother says about how she's happy he turned human, he was never supposed to exist; and certainly not in the form he does. He was supposed to be a distraction, a monster, something his mother was never supposed to see again and his father was never supposed to know about. So why would they come? His reasoning tells him that they wouldn't, but a part of him truly believes that despite all that they do love him. After all, they did keep him once he was human didn't they? They did let him call them mom and dad and they sure did act like they love him. But still, he's not like they're new baby.

Before Justin could think anymore on it, however, the room began to fill with a green gas and he lost his ability to breathe. Having been raised in a family that fights the Kraang on a weekly basis he knew what the gas was, air from dimension x, but that didn't make what happened any less terrifying.

* * *

"Remind me to start carrying zip-ties around so I can leave you strapped to a street sign." Casey snapped as he and Karai stood in position a rooftop away from the main TCRI building.

"Please, I know how to get out of those." Karai scoffed as the two of them inspected the perimeter around the building, trying to find an entry point. "What even set Justin off anyway?" She asked and for a moment Casey's face turned bright red.

"I, I don't know," he stuttered, causing his girlfriend to look skeptically at him. "I really don't!" He quickly defended, and really it wasn't a lie, because he couldn't for the life of him understand why Justin would run off after hearing his father has plans to marry his mother.

"Ok," Karai said before getting back to the matter at hand. "There's a computer in the main lobby, if we can get into that maybe we can find out where they're holding Justin." She continued

"So what? We use the front door?" Casey questioned and Karai smirked.

"Since when do you use a cross bow?" Casey questioned as he examined the arrow his girlfriend had shot through the window and lodged into the neck of the Ms. Campbell robot manning TCRI's front desk.

"Leo gave it to me after he found out I'm pregnant, apparently he knew I'd still jump back into action on an emergency and wanted me to have a weapon I could use from a distance." She responded as she typed away on the computer. "Now keep a look out, the Kraang probably have security cameras and know we're here." She continued and so Casey did as she said, and sure enough it wasn't long before the elevator door opened to the sight of at least ten Kraang firing off their blasters. Casey did his best to cover his girlfriend, but she needed to hurry up or they were both going to be Kraang food, well all three of them technically.

"He's not here!" Karai finally announced

"What?!" Casey demanded incredulously, if Justin's not here than where is he?

"They're not holding him here!" She shouted back before literally pulling him out of the fight and they ran from the building.

* * *

"You what?!" Raph shouted when Casey and Karai made it back to the lair and explained where they had gone after losing sight of Justin.

"Our son was kidnapped by the Kraang, so we snuck into TCRI and got his location." Karai said through gritted teeth, she had already received this lecture from Casey and did not need it from Raph.

"Are you TRYING to kill your baby?!" The hotheaded turtle demanded and it took all of Karai's self-control to keep from slapping him, unfortunately that didn't leave her enough self-control to stop from snapping.

"Of course not!" She barked at him, the fire in her eyes so intense that it even made Raph a little afraid of her. The other's were around, her brother's, her boyfriend, and April. They were all present, and they were all currently looking at her as if she were a lite stick of dynamite that had just blown up. "You're all so worried about the new baby being in danger, what about Justin?" She demanded, "you trusted me to go into battle with him in that stupid sling, when that was probably more dangerous than charging into battle three months pregnant! I don't know how you guys could see that as safe and not this. I wouldn't have gone if I didn't trust myself." She growled

"Karai it's not you we don't trust!" Leo bellowed, "the Kraang have numbers far greater than our own-"

"Then we need all the help we can get," Karai interrupted

"They can out number us in any fight. If they overpower any of us than it's only one life we have to worry about, but if they over power you then you're not the only one we have to worry about." Leo continued

"What difference does that make?!" Karai snapped, "For right now I can still fight as well as I could before I was pregnant!" She shouted desperately, because to her it still sounded like they don't trust her.

"Because Karai when Justin was a baby, and you fought with him in that sling, you could put him down!" Casey shouted and finally his girlfriend appeared to be listening, so he lowered his voice. "If you got in a tight spot, if he ended up in danger, you could get him out of there. You could put him down and lead the fight away from him, or you could hand him off if one of us was close enough. But you can't do that right now, and what only stuns you could kill it. We trust you Karai, and we know you know the risks and can handle it. But it still scares us." He said and finally Karai sighed in defeat, much as she hates to admit it, Casey's right and they only worry because they're her family and they love both her and the baby.

"Justin's being held the same place Casey and I were, swear you'll call me if you need help." She said and Casey nodded,

"Why don't you go home? Mickey's probably back by now." He said; Mikey didn't have to work today and since her friends told her they needed to go somewhere she decided to go back to her place while Damian's at work and grab a change of clothes as well as her purse, then go distract herself by going to help her cousin out at the animal shelter. Of course before any of this was decided she tried telling her friends one more time that if they wanted her out of their apartment she could go to her mom's, they did not let that happen.

* * *

"So where's Justin been?" Mickey asked when she met Karai back at the apartment.

"Um, with my brothers." Karai more or less lied as she turned the key and let her and her friend into the apartment.

"Karai if you're keeping him out of the apartment because of me, I swear I was never going to tell him about what Damian did." Mickey said while closing the door behind her.

"No I know," Karai said quickly, obviously she knows that Mickey would never tell Justin about an issue so serious. Still, she wanted to tell Mickey the truth about where Justin is, but if Damian has been brain washed then there's a chance he won't remember it when they find a way to cure him. If he doesn't remember it, then it's probably best Mickey never knows. "It's just hard to get him away from my brothers," she attempted to lie but Mickey saw right through it.

"Karai; look I know you don't like to talk about your brothers, and I'm not going to make you, but is everything ok?" She asked, looking her clearly worried friend in the eyes.

"Yeah," Karai responded with a nod, "Yeah he's just… he ran away." She confessed and with a horrified look Mickey pulled her into a hug.

"Oh my god," was all Mickey managed to say at first,

Karai has never been one to be very emotional, ever. But she HATES feeling helpless, and that is exactly what she feels right now. Her son ran away, no one seems to know why, then the Kraang captured him, and now she's just standing in her apartment instead of being out looking for him.

"We have to call the police," Mickey finally said as she pulled away from the hug.

"Already did," Karai lied, "and Casey and April are out looking for him with my brothers. I came home in case he comes back." She said; most of which actually wasn't a lie.

"Ok, why don't I go and join them?" Mickey suggested but Karai shook her head, no way was she letting Mickey wander the streets with the Kraang on the loose.

"No they've got it covered, could you just stay here with me?" She asked, god she hated even pretending to need a babysitter.

"Of course," Mickey said before pulling her friend into another hug.

* * *

When Justin woke up for the second time he was strapped to an upright examination table in a destroyed lab, and two Kraang were standing around what appeared to be a barely functioning computer. He didn't know it, but this was a situation his parents and many other people he knows are familiar with.

"What's going on? What do you want with me?" He demanded but the Kraang gave no response. "My Uncles will find me, they'll save me!" He said in an attempt to be brave, after all even if his parents don't want him his Uncle's still help people, they'll save him, right?

As if on cue to answer his question his Uncles Raph and Donnie came crashing down on the two Kraang right at that very moment, followed by his two remaining Uncles, his Aunt, and his father.

"Dad!" He shouted as his father used a pocketknife to rip through the restraints and get him down.

"Justin!" Casey exclaimed at the same time, gathering his son into his arms. "Are you alright buddy?" He asked and his now crying son nodded against his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," he sobbed

"It's ok, let's just get you home." Casey said but Donnie cut through their little reunion.

"Guys! According to this data there are other prisoner's on a secret floor below, and every one of them is listed on the flash drive Karai recovered." He announced and for a moment everyone froze, because this rescue mission just got a lot more serious.

"Casey, take Justin home, we'll get the others." Leo ordered and with a nod Casey took off with his son and Leo turned back to Donnie.

"The entrance is, oh how original." He said sarcastically

"Where is it? Behind a bookshelf?" Mikey guessed but Donnie just responded by pushing the computer desk out of the way, revealing a manhole cover sized hole in the ground.

"Close," the genius admitted

* * *

Angel hadn't given up, not permanently anyway. But presently she didn't have any escape plans and so she was just lying on her cot in the cell with her cellmate doing the same across the room. Suddenly her cellmate sat up,

"Do you hear that?" She asked and Angel listened, she heard some slight noises, but nothing she could identify.

"It's probably that kid a few cells down," She theorized, she had heard that the little girl who was stuck in a cell all alone had a habit of jumping around.

"No, these are too practiced." The older woman disagreed, and then Angel heard a voice coming from far down the hall. She couldn't tell what the words were, but she would swear on her life that it was Mikey. So she listened, and at one point she know she heard Raph.

She sprung up from her cot and went to the door, practically pressing her face against the small window.

"Guys!" She shouted, "Guys!" She said again.

"What are you doing?!" Her cellmate demanded

"It's my friends! GUYS!" She continued

"How can you be sure?" Her cellmate continued to interrogate

"GUYS!" Angel continued, now pounding on the door and ignoring her cellmate.

The now very annoyed cellmate was going to say something else, but that was when the face of a humanoid turtle appeared in the window and she just screamed instead. But Angel's face lit up; because of course her friends are mutants.

"Leo!" She exclaimed

"Angel?" He asked; his voice muffled by the plastic window.

"Yes! Leo it's me!" She exclaimed, just in case Leo thought that maybe she was the clone.

"Donnie's working on the lock, Angel how long have you been in here?" He questioned

"About two months ago I think?" She guessed more than answered, having lost all track of time.

Outside the cell Leo turned to look at his brothers and April, they had fought Angel two weeks ago. Just then Donnie managed to hack the control panel that opened all the cells and though Angel was among those who ran out into the hallway, her cellmate was not.

"How did you find us?" Angel questioned, throwing her arms around Leo who was quick to pry her off.

"Trailed a kidnapping, better question, how is that you've been here for two months when I fought you barely two weeks ago?" He demanded

"That was a clone," Angel quickly answered

"A clone?" Leo snorted

"Oh says the talking mutant ninja turtle!" Angel exclaimed when she realized that Leo didn't believe her.

Leo was about to reply when April, who had wandered into Angel's cell, gasped at the sight of Angel's cellmate, her old friend Irma.

* * *

Justin coming home went about as well as could've been expected, first Karai hugged him, then she scolded him, then she sent him to his room. Mickey, with nowhere else to go, hung out in the background the whole time until the little boy was in his room.

"I need to talk to him," Karai said about five minutes later

"Karai-" Casey tried as his girlfriend got up

"No Casey, we've tried leaving him alone and it didn't work!" She all but shouted before she went marching down the hallway and began knocking on Justin's door.

"I'm gonna go… well I don't know but I'm gonna go," Mickey said, slipping on her shoes and leaving the apartment.

* * *

Justin was lying on his bed, his mother hadn't shouted but that was because her friend is over, once Mickey leaves he'll really be in for it. Suddenly a knock came from his door, well that was fast.

"Justin?" His mother's voice asked as she walked into the room, he isn't quite sure why but he rolled over to face her.

She closed the door quietly behind her, and if he didn't know better he'd say she wasn't even mad. Without a word she came over and sat next to him on the bed, gently placing her hand on his back as she began to rub it in small circles.

"You going to tell me why you ran away today?" She asked calmly

"You're not mad?" He asked in confusion

"Oh I'm mad, but I'm also worried." She admitted, leaning over and trying to get a look at his face. "Justin ever since I told you about the baby you've been upset, and today you ran away. Why?" She asked

"Because I don't count!" He huffed before rolling over; Karai just stared at him for a minute, completely stunned.

"What do you mean you don't count?" She finally asked and when he gave no response she placed a hand on his shoulder and rolled him onto his back. "Justin." She said sternly, giving a very over exaggerated sigh he sat up.

"I wasn't supposed to be your baby," he said, "I wasn't supposed to be human, I was just supposed to be a monster and you weren't supposed to have to worry about me. I, I was jus, just…" He cut himself off with his own tears and threw himself into his mother's arms. She in return pulled him to sit in her lap and let him cry with his head pressed into her chest.

Wrapping her arms around him and running one hand through his hair Karai didn't know what to do, she had considered that maybe Justin was annoyed he wouldn't be an only child anymore, but she had never thought he felt like this.

"Justin," she said, pressing a kiss to his forehead and rocking him back and forth where they sat. "Justin, listen to me. I love you. Dad loves you. Your Uncles and your Aunts all love you. Grandpa Jones loves you and so does Grandpa Splinter, he loved you when he was alive and he loves you now." She listed

"But I'm not like the baby, I… I was made by accident." He whined and Karai couldn't help but chuckle.

"Don't tell the baby this until it's a lot older, but it was made on accident to." She laughed and that actually got a smile from Justin as he looked up at her.

"Really?" He asked and Karai nodded, a playful smirk on her face.

"Our secret," she said

"Ok," Justin happily agreed, laying his head back against her chest. They sat there in silence for a minute, and whether Justin knew it or not Karai was pleasantly aware of him resting his hand on her belly.

She barely has a bump at this point, and for all she knows Justin could be trying to determine if the baby's really there or not.

"Mommy?" He finally asked

"Yeah?"

"Even though we were both made on accident, am I still your baby even though I didn't come from you?" He asked and Karai sat up a little.

"Of course you are," she said, "Justin it doesn't matter that I was never pregnant with you, doesn't make you any less of my son." She said before something dawned on her, because amazingly this has happened before. "Perfect example; my mommy was never pregnant with my brothers, but they're still my brothers." She said and Justin smiled

"Oh yeah," he said, "I'm sorry for running away." He said and Karai responded by putting her arms back around him.

"It's ok," she said, "tell you what, promise never to do it again and I'll let you off with a warning." She bargained

"Deal," Justin giggled, "I guess I just thought that since you and dad are getting married that meant the new baby was your real family and I didn't count and-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa" Karai interrupted her son's rant. "Justin, who gave you the idea that your father and I are getting married?" She asked, "Which even if we were you are just as much family as your brother or sister." She continued

"I know that now," Justin said as if it was obvious, and then gave no indication that he was going to continue.

"Ok but who gave you that idea in the first place?" Karai asked again

"Dad," again, Justin said it as if it were obvious, "He said he was going to…" He trailed off, realization dawning on him that he wasn't supposed to say anything. "Nothing!' He quickly snapped.  
"Justin-" she started but she was cut off by the door opening.

"Leo just called, we need to get down to the lair." Casey exclaimed as he entered.


	9. Beware the Clones

"A clone?" Karai asked when she and Casey arrived at the lair with Justin, where they found not only the turtles, but also Angel and, of all people, Irma.

"Wait so you didn't join the purple dragons?" Casey asked his sister, but the hope in his voice diminished when she shook her head.

"Sorry Casey but that was me," She confessed, "but I'm done with them, I promise." She hastily added, she had been replaced for two months and those lowlifes who are buried up to their noses in Kraang intel didn't even notice.

"You better be," Casey said in a warning tone and she nodded, she hadn't exactly expected him to be nice about this.

"So what'd I miss?" She questioned

"First off, are we sure this one isn't the clone?" Karai asked Donnie who nodded

"I gave her a blood test," he confirmed

"Donnie, I'm no scientist but wouldn't her DNA be exactly the same as a clone's?" Casey questioned skeptically, he may not be have graduated with honors, but a few too many sci-fi movies had educated him in the basic principles of cloning.

"Yes but her iron level is extremely low, as well pretty much every other nutrient level for that matter. It checks out with her story, she's definitely been held captive for the past two months." He explained and Casey accepted that answer, well almost.

"Just to be sure… tell me something only the real Angel would know," He challenged and she sighed with a roll of her eyes.

"Justin was created in a Kraang lab, your middle name is Anthony, and my favorite food is blueberry pie despite the fact that I can't stand blueberry's in anything else or on their own." She listed off

"Yup it's Angel," he agreed as April approached the group standing around in the lab.

"Well I can't get through to Irma," she announced, "the only useful thing she told me is that she remembers me and Casey but she says she never knew us very well. Apparently the Kraang kidnapped her just after Christmas 2013, a few months before second semester when she started talking to me, or Kraang subprime did." She explained and the faces of everyone fell, Irma's been locked up for a long time and from what Angel's said she spent most of it alone.

"Let me talk to her," Karai spoke up, causing the other four currently in the lab to look at her.

"Karai no offense but I think she might respond better to someone she at least recognizes." Donnie said gently

"I get that but she's not responding to April, and no one knows better than me what it's like to be kidnapped. Maybe she'll respond to that," she suggested, looking to her brother and April for approval.

"Couldn't hurt," April said to Donnie with a shrug

"Technically it could, as it could potentially plunge Irma into an even deeper state of depression and isolation. But ignoring her would probably have the same effect, and we should get her used to new faces…" Donnie trailed off, weighing the options that they had. "Ok," he finally agreed.

April led Karai from the lab, and they walked in silence all the way down the hall to the kunoichi's old bedroom.

"Thanks again for letting us put her in here," April said, it was obvious from when she had to quite literally drag Irma from the cell that she couldn't handle being around a ton of people right now, so they needed a secluded room for her to go to before she had a full on heart attack, and Karai's vacant room was perfect since no one had any reason to be going in or out of there.

"No problem," Karai said as they reached her door.

With a nod and a smile as a silent 'thank you' April walked away and left her friend standing there. Karai took a deep breath before giving the door a small knock and then opening it softly as she could.

"Hi," she said in a soft voice as she entered the room

"H-hi," the woman inside stuttered, she had the light off and Karai wouldn't dare turn it on if that wasn't something Irma wanted.

For a moment Karai studied her appearance, from what she could make out in the dark it was physically obvious that Irma had been held captive for a long time. Her skin was pale as if it had never seen the sun, and she smelt to the point where Karai nearly gagged, what was that about pregnancy heightening your sense of smell? Shaking her head and trying to get past that she also noticed that Irma's long dark hair reached her waist and was cut at ragged, uneven angles like she had cut it in the dark, she probably had. Her clothes were also much too small on her, sure they hung off her tiny frame but they were too short and nearly destroyed; much like her cracked glasses.

"My name's Karai," Karai introduced as she took a seat on the ground across from Irma, who only nodded in response. "Irma I know what it's like to be kidnapped and brought back to a different world-" she cut herself off when Irma looked at her in surprise. "When I was a baby, I was kidnapped by a man named Oroku Saki. He raised me to be a killer, and my target was Hamato Yoshi, the man Saki told me murdered my mother." She paused to see if Irma was listening, she was and quite intently. "The turtles who rescued you, they're Hamato Yoshi's adopted sons." She normally never specified that her relationship with her brothers is an adoptive one, because really it doesn't matter, but in this case it's important in order to ensure that Irma understands. "When I was seventeen I found out the truth, that Hamato Yoshi was my true father and Saki was the one who killed my mother. Look I know the Kraang didn't put me in a cell, but I went my whole life believing this lie until one day, it was like I woke up. All of the sudden I was the oldest of five kids, the idea of vengeance was highly discouraged, and then two weeks later I became a mom." Irma's eyes widened when she heard that, "I know it's not that same as what you went through, but you need to know that you're not the only one who's world changed overnight." She said, "and if this isn't helpful try talking to Leo, he once fell into a coma for three months and when he woke up… well the world had changed." She finished.

* * *

Mickey had just returned to Casey and Karai's apartment only to find it locked and them gone. Groaning out of frustration she was debating what to do when her phone went off, the screen lightly up with the I.D. of her boyfriend. At first her heart stopped, he hadn't tried to contact her since she left. After a moments hesitation she answered the call and brought the phone to her ear.

"Hello,"

"Mickey!" Damian exclaimed on the other end, "Where are you? Are you ok?" He demanded

"Like you care," she spat

"What? Mickey what happened? What did that guy at the apartment do to you?" He was panicking, leaving Mickey genuinely confused.

"Damian I'm not in the mood for this," she growled

"Mickey I swear, I was kidnapped by the Kraang, that guy at the apartment is a clone!" He shouted

"A clone? Damian that's insane!" She shouted back into the phone

"Do you believe me?" He asked her hopefully and Mickey couldn't help but sigh.

"I shouldn't… but you know I do," she said and despite the obvious panic and shortness of breath from her boyfriend on the other end she could hear him smile.

"Mickey, I have never loved you more!" He exclaimed and Mickey couldn't help but giggle, this was her Damian she was talking too.

* * *

Karai gave Irma some new clothes; suddenly grateful she keeps a spare set of training clothes at the lair. It was just some yoga pants and a tank top, but it was something that fit Irma. She also allowed Irma to borrow the hairbrush she keeps here to brush out her long hair, which Irma gratefully did before asking Karai if she wouldn't mind cutting her hair.

"Are you sure?" Karai asked skeptically and Irma nodded

"I always had my hair short, please?" She asked again and Karai nodded,

"I'll go get some scissors." She said before opening the door to leave the room. The instant she opened the door, however, she nearly jumped at the sight of Leo standing right in front of her. "Jeez Leo, eavesdrop much?" She questioned as she shut the door behind her and pushed past her brother.

"Do you think we can trust her?" He questioned, following her down the hall and into the kitchen.

"Believe me Leo I would not have told her about Shredder if I thought we couldn't," she replied whilst rummaging through a drawer for the scissors.

"Karai, if what Angel and Irma say is true and the Kraang were replacing humans with super clones, then you, Justin, Casey, and April can't trust anyone up there." He warned

"We'll be careful. I appreciate the concern Leo but the four of us can't come running to the lair every time we smell danger, we'll be fine." She said and Leo sighed but didn't press the issue further, he knows the human members of his family can take care of themselves.

Just as Karai found what she was looking for Angel came walking in with a sly grin on her face.

"What?" Karai asked the teen

"Casey told me what I missed," she said knowingly and it took Karai a minute to understand what exactly she was referring to.

"Oh," she finally said

"Yeah oh," Angel mocked with a smile, "I can't believe it took him this long to actually get you pregnant," she laughed and while Karai's face turned beat red Leo just paled and stared at her awkwardly, of course he knew that she and Casey had been… active… for awhile now, he isn't stupid. But it's one of those things where the less he knows the better, and what he does know he pretends he doesn't.

"I'm going to go cut Irma's hair," Karai finally said, leaving Leo and Angel in the kitchen.

* * *

Mickey was standing outside of Murakami's, right where Damian told her to meet him. A part of her, a really big part of her, was wondering why she was here. There's no way the Damian who hit her was a clone; it's impossible.

 _Sure, as impossible as an alien apocalypse._ The small part of her mind that she was actually listening to said.

Just then she saw Damian come barreling around the corner, looking as though he were running for his life. Before Mickey could ask he reached her and wrapped his arms around her, pressing her tightly against him.

"Oh thank god," he gasped, then proceeded to bury his face in her shoulder for a moment before he looked back up and pulled away from the hug. "What happened? Did he hurt you?" He demanded; his hands gripped tightly on her shoulders. Mickey opened her mouth to answer, but stopped herself when she saw who was running around the corner, now there was no doubt in her mind that Damian was telling the truth.

* * *

"That's not going to work Mikey!" Donnie hissed, presently everyone was gathered in the lab, save for Karai and Irma, to listen to Angel's explanation of the past two months she had spent in a Kraang cell and what she had found out when they scanned her in order to make a clone. Apparently the idea was vaguely similar to something Mikey had seen on Kim Possible in which the clones were defeated by splashing soda on them.

"Actually it might," Angel said, causing everyone to stare at her in disbelief. "Not soda obviously," she quickly added, "but I remember that episode. The soda destroyed the clones because they were chemically imbalanced, and so the soda's chemical make up corrupted their instability enough to dissolve them; maybe these things have a similar weakness." She suggested and still everybody stared at her, "what? I pay attention in school." She defended

"So, with the right weapon, these things will just dissolve?" Leo questioned, now turning his attention to Donnie.

"Theoretically, but I'd need to obtain a sample from one in order to figure out a formula, then there's the matter of dispersing it throughout the city." He responded

"Let's focus on getting a sample first," Raph suggested and then the conversation was abruptly halted when Karai and Irma made their way into the lab.

Karai came first, followed slowly and unsurely by Irma. She was now dressed in a pair of Karai's yoga pants as well as one of her tank tops. Her glasses were still cracked but her hair had been brushed out and cut to her shoulders, making her slightly resemble the girl she had been before she was kidnapped.

"Not to ruin your plans but we might have other problems," Karai said

"Like what?" Leo questioned

"Well you guys said there were a few other prisoners who ran out of that building without seeing you. So what happens when they go home and there's another 'them' there?" She asked and the others all exchanged glances.

"Some crackpot's might blame the matrix," Angel joked, though clearly now wasn't the time.

As the group discussed this Casey answered his ringing phone, the one that was lighting up with Mickey's caller I.D.

"Mick I'm sorry we left but there's a key-"

"Casey, would you believe me if I told you something crazy?" Mickey interrupted him, she sounded like she was running.

"What is it?" Casey asked

"I'm with Damian, and we're being chased… by his clone."

Casey's heart stopped, but he quickly recovered from the shock and used his hand to signal everyone else in the room to stop talking.

"Ok Mickey first chance you get, duck into the sewers!" He exclaimed into the phone, ignoring the surprised glances from everyone else. "Call me when you do," he finished before hanging up the phone and facing the others.

"I think we just found out what happens when they go home," He said; fear etching it's way into his voice.

* * *

Mickey and Damian did as Casey said and got down to the sewers the first chance they saw, and the second their feet touched the ground Damian pushed his girlfriend up against the concrete wall and smashed their lips together.

"I'm against a sewer wall," Mickey chuckled when she pulled away briefly for air.

With a grin Damian chuckled back, "if you hate it that much-" he began but Mickey cut him off.

"No," she practically whispered as she kissed him again, "I've missed you too much to care." She said before kissing him one more time before quickly pulling away again. "I've got to call Casey," she said

"Doubt you'll get a signal down here," Damian said but he was proven wrong when his girlfriend not only took out her phone, but also dialed it and began talking to their hockey-obsessed friend.

"Ok, Casey says he'll be here in a few minutes." She announced

"What's he going to do?" Damian questioned and Mickey shrugged, they had no idea what was in store.

* * *

Casey left to go meet his friends, he, Karai, and April have all known them for years and so after some persuading the guys agreed that it they could be trusted with the secret; besides Damian could've seen something during his escape for all they know. Karai was going to go with him, but Justin caught her before they left.

"What's gonna happen to Madeline?" He asked her; she looked down at him and then at Casey.

"You go," she encouraged, Casey looked liked he wanted to argue but he ultimately decided against it and left the lair. Karai knelt down to get at an equal height with her son. "Sweetheart that wasn't Madeline who knocked you out," she said

"I know!" Justin quickly interrupted, "But what about the real Madeline? What if her mommy and daddy don't believe her?" He asked and at first Karai didn't know what to tell him, because it is possible.

"Where does she live?" Angel's voice interrupted the conversation, "I'll go check on her." She offered

"Thanks Angel but you don't have to," Karai said

"I'd feel a lot better if I did," the young girl said and so Karai stood up and pulled her aside.

"Angel you know I trust you-" she began to say but Angel cut her off.

"First off no you don't," she said, "and I understand that, I don't exactly have a trustworthy record. But I saw some of the files that were destroyed when the guys trashed the lair, these things have a kill order if they see their original." She explained and Karai's eyes went wide.

"Ok just be careful," she agreed and Angel nodded.

"Don't worry."


	10. One Long Night

"Guys seriously, you need to try and not freak out." Casey warned as he led his friends closer and closer to the lair.

"Dude we were just chased into the sewer by my evil clone! Whatever the hell it is you're dragging us into we can handle it!" Damian snapped for the hundredth time, neither he nor Mickey had any idea where in the sewer Casey was bringing them or why he was so paranoid about it, but it was getting annoying.

"I hope you're right," a female voice cut through their conversation, revealing Karai standing outside some turnstiles of what her friends could only guess was a long abandoned subway station.

"Ok I'm no doctor, but walking around a sewer CAN'T be good for you." Mickey said, earning a very confused look from her boyfriend.

"No kidding, I feel like I'm about to throw up from the smell." Karai remarked, she had grown used to the smell of the sewer and stopped noticing it long ago, but this baby was forcing her to notice and get used to it all over again.

"Then get out of here!" Mickey exclaimed but Karai shook her head with a chuckle, it is amusing how easily Mickey gets worked up when she's concerned.

"Justin lived here with me for three and a half years before I moved in with Casey, baby's just going to have to get used to it." She said

"Wait what?" Damian asked, though it was unclear if it was Karai saying she used to live in a sewer or the baby comment that confused him; most likely it was both.

"Wait you lived in a sewer? You told me you were living with your brothers!" Mickey exclaimed

"I was," Karai said, "Now come on, I'll explain everything inside." She continued before turning and entering through the turnstiles, Casey followed her and his friends, in turn, followed him.

"I am so confused," Damian muttered, but once he got inside and was greeted by the sight of four mutant turtles standing around what looked like a living room along with April O'Neil and another girl he didn't know he was, understandably, even more confused.

* * *

Angel made her way to the address Karai gave her, making sure to use stealth as she approached the building. She decided to go up the fire escape, and thank goodness for that. Standing at only five feet tall, Angel was unable to jump high enough to reach the ladder for the fire escape. But that wasn't going to stop her. She scanned the alley for something to stand on, but with nothing useful in sight she decided to have a look in the dumpster. Opening the large steel bin the fourteen-year-old nearly jumped back with a shriek at the sight of which she saw. There, lying buried beneath the piles of trash was a little girl who looked like she had been hit by a truck.

 _Or a clone strong enough to lift one,_ she thought to herself. Without another moments hesitation Angel bent over and carefully lifted the girl from the dumpster. She held the girl in front of her, sitting her on her hands and straddling her limp legs over her abdomen. Fiddling to get the girl's hair out of the way so she could feel for a pulse, Angel allowed Madeline's head to fall onto her shoulder. When she finally managed to make out a weak pulse she let out a huge breath of relief and found herself holding Madeline tighter, and ignoring the awful smell of the dumpster that clung to Madeline's body.

"Ok, come on let's go, you're going to be ok." Angel found herself whispering despite knowing that Madeline couldn't hear her.

* * *

"This is crazy," Damian said after everything had been explained to him and Mickey.

"Hey you promised you wouldn't freak out," Casey reminded his friend

"Well that was before I knew that all this time, all these years, two of my best friends have been fighting the Kraang and lying to my face about it!" He all but shouted

"Seriously?" Mickey asked her boyfriend, turning to him in disbelief. "Out of all that, that's what you got?" She questioned

"No…" he immaturely trailed off, but quickly found that he had nothing to say that could prove his point.

He then got up and stalked off to the exit of the lair, though everyone knew he wasn't stupid enough to actually leave the sewers.

"He'll come around," Mickey said with a shake of her head.

Before anyone had the chance to say anything else, however, the sound of speeding footsteps came echoing from outside the lair. Everyone turned to look just in time to see Angel sprint through the entrance with an unconscious and quite beat up little girl in her arms. Immediately Donnie jumped up while Karai physically restrained Justin, holding him back as he tried to run over to the chaos.

"Maddie!" He screamed but it fell on the deaf ears of Donnie and Angel.

"She was in a dumpster, that stupid clone…" Angel continued ranting as Donnie took the girl from her, his mind racing about as fast as Angel's mouth.

"I'll get her to the lab!" Donnie quickly announced, Justin tried to follow him but Karai continued to attempt to keep him on the couch. Suddenly she found herself extremely grateful that she was still early enough in her pregnancy to still be small enough that she could effectively use her legs as another set of restraints on Justin.

"Justin! Justin calm down!" She all but shouted at her squirming son.

"But-"

"Maddie will be fine," Karai struggled to cut him off, "Uncle Donnie will take good care of her," she continued and finally Justin began calming down, and although he was no longer struggling against Karai he remained in her lap with her arms wrapped around him protectively. "Come on," she said after awhile when he was finally calm. "It's getting late," she continued before turning her attention to Leo. "Cool if we stay the night?" She asked and with a smile her oldest but still younger brother nodded.

"Of course it is," he replied and so Karai got up with Justin still in her arms and carried him off in the direction of her old bedroom.

"Do you want me to-"

"I'm fine," Karai cut Casey off mid-sentence, she knows he's only looking out for her but if he says something every time she picks Justin up from now on she's going to lose any patience she has with him, and fast.

As Karai disappeared down the hall Casey couldn't help but notice the sound of Raph laughing under his breath behind him.

"What's so funny?" He demanded of his best friend

"Nothing, it's just I didn't realize until now how funny this is going to be." He laughed

"How funny what's going to be?" Casey questioned

"Karai being pregnant," Raph clarified, "she is one of the most self-sufficient people I know, and sooner or later she's going to have to actually let you do stuff for her. Therefor the next few months are going to be a lot of pointless argument from you two." He explained but Casey frowned in response.

"Come on man, Karai knows her limits." He argued

"Dude she won't even ask you to give her a can of soup when she's sick, she gets up and makes it herself." Mikey pointed out, recalling the last time his big sister had come down with the flu.

"Mikey if she can't do something-" Casey started but he found himself cut off by April.

"She'll ask you for help but she won't be happy about it," She said and Casey's frown only deepened.

"Well can you blame her?" He asked defensively, "I doubt there was a lot of 'help' in the Foot Clan and then she came here and ended up a mom and the oldest of five kids. She doesn't exactly know how to let people help her." He continued, he's sure the guys have thought of this before, and he knows they didn't mean anything by their comments, but he still hates when their friends or family tease Karai for never exactly being the first to accept help.

* * *

Meanwhile in the lab Donnie was doing everything he could think of to stabilize the little girl Angel had brought home. He just couldn't believe this, how far the Kraang are willing to go. They need to stop these clones; they can't allow this to happen to anyone else, it's bad enough that it happened to this little girl. Therefor when Donnie noticed something on the girl's skin, something that looked like blood but the consistency told him it was not, he immediately bottled it and set it over by his microscope to study once he had Madeline stabilized; maybe it could tell him how to defeat the clones.

* * *

It was late at night and almost everyone was asleep. The humans were spread throughout the couch, even Irma didn't object to spending the night in such close quarters with other people. Donnie was the only one still awake, or he thought he was anyway. He was proven wrong when he finally looked up from his series of charts and notes to see Karai standing in the doorway of his lab.

"Can't sleep?" He asked her

"How is she?" She asked, walking in and dodging his question.

"Stable, finally." Donnie answered but Karai barely seemed to hear him, she was too busy looking down at the six-year-old girl lying on the medical bed, blood and bruises covering her body while an oxygen mask covered her face.

"She's half dead and her parents have no idea," she finally muttered.

"They will." Donnie tried to assure her, "we'll take down these clones, and she'll go home and tell her parents all about how she fought for her life and won." He said but it did little to cheer up Karai, in fact if it did anything it only made her worse.

"Everyday I think I made the right choice keeping Justin, even in the face of all this." She began, gesturing to Madeline. "I mean this could be him and I would have no idea. But..." she trailed off and frankly Donnie didn't like that one bit, the fear in her eyes inflicting some in his own.

"But..?" He finally prompted

"I don't know, maybe he would have been better off with someone who wasn't mixed up in this kind of stuff. Now not only did I put him in danger but I'm about to bring another kid into it" She finished, subconsciously resting one hand on her belly.

"Karai," Donnie sighed, "no one can tell what might've happened had you given Justin up for adoption, but do you want my opinion?" He asked and Karai simply gave him a pleading look. "Well considering he would've had no birth certificate or anything from the first year and a half of his life, including foster records, I think he would've grown up wondering where he could've possibly come from. I think that both the Kraang and Shredder could've easily tracked him down; because they did both know about him. I think that sooner or later, one way or another, he would've found his way back to you and the danger." He said, by now he was standing up and was less than a foot from her. Tentatively he reached a hand out towards her stomach, unsure if he was crossing a boundary line or not. But Karai noticed what he was doing, or rather trying to do, and grabbed his hand and lightly placed it over her abdomen. "As for this little guy," Donnie said with a small smile before forgetting his usual awkwardness and pulling his sister into a hug. "He or she has nothing to worry about." He promised and in response Karai wrapped her arms around his neck, allowing him to hold her for a minute before she pulled away.

"I hope you're right," she said

"I am, believe it or not Karai some kids are actually born into worse. Now I almost never take quotes from TV as lessons, that's more Mikey's thing, but Raph and I were watching this crime show and I heard something that I think you should remember." He said and Karai couldn't help but look slightly amused by the comment, because Donnie isn't kidding when he says he's not one to look to television for advice.

"What is it?" She asked

"The world has been falling apart since the beginning of time, but having a family, that's what keeps it together." He advised and Karai had to admit, that is not only helpful but also surprisingly true.

"Thanks Donnie," She said

"Anytime," Donnie beamed.

Karai then left the lab, leaving Donnie to his own devices. When she exited the lab, however, she noticed Casey missing from the couch. Following a hunch, and knowledge of her boyfriend's usual late night habits, she checked the kitchen and sure enough found him sitting on a bar stool with a bowl of ice cream in front of him.

"Please tell me that didn't come from the cat," she said from behind him, causing him to look up and see her approaching.

"No, Mikey had a carton in there. You want any?" He asked and in response she opened the freezer, where she was greeted with the sight of a couple frozen mini pizzas and Ice Cream Kitty's half lidded eyes staring back at her.

"Sorry Icy," she apologized, using the nickname she had given the cat long ago.

"Yeah sorry, this was the last of it. I was asking of you wanted some of mine," Casey sheepishly said

"No thanks," Karai responded but her boyfriend only pushed his bowl across the table towards her.

"You just went looking in the freezer for it," he argued

"You beat me to it," she argued back, trying to hand the bowl back but Casey wouldn't take it.

"Just take mine," he insisted

"No, it's yours." She insisted

"Come on, don't pregnant women get cravings in the middle of the night for ice cream?" He questioned, ok so maybe what the guys said earlier was getting to him just a little bit, because really despite her reasons, the bottom line remains that Karai has to be forced to let someone take care of her.

"If I want something that badly I'll go get it myself, I'm not going to make you suffer." She said but Casey only scoffed.

"Oh no I lose half a bowl of ice cream, how will I live?" He sarcastically mocked, Karai rolled her eyes at him.

"Cute," she commented

"Look it's melting, I'll eat it if you honestly don't want it but make up your mind." Casey said and after another second or two of thought Karai gave in and accepted the bowl; reasoning that her brother's aren't around to mock her and much as she hates to admit it she really, really does want that ice cream.

With a very satisfied smirk Casey watched as his girlfriend came and sat on the stool next to his, trying to avoid his eyes the whole time. Of course that didn't work and she ended up letting her laughter escape her control just as she sat down.

"Oh shut up," she said

"I didn't say anything," he responded, his smile never fading.

Karai rolled her eyes but she did so with a half smile as she put the spoon in her mouth, more or less unwilling to admit that she really was ok with the fact that Casey gave her his ice cream.

"Hey so, I have a question for you." She said, now suddenly trying to ignore a massive brain freeze.

"Shoot," Casey said

"Why did Justin tell me he got the idea, from you, that you and I are getting married?" She asked and for a moment Casey just froze, trying to force his suddenly blank mind to think of something to say. But finally he just gave up on thinking of an excuse and sighed.

"You know for a kid who keeps the secret of mutants living in a sewer, you would think he could keep a secret like that." He finally muttered; Karai just stared at him wide-eyed.

"Wait, you were serious?" She asked, "I thought maybe you were just joking with him." She said.

"What? No, why would I joke about something like that?" He demanded

"I don't know!" She exclaimed, the reality setting in on her that whatever Justin had heard, he had heard it right.

"Ok calm down," Casey said, immediately sensing her nervousness and fear. "Yes, I was planning on asking you. I hadn't figured out when yet, all I did was talk to the guys-"

"The guys know about this?!" Karai interrupted, feeling as though she was about to either faint or have a heart attack.

"Yes, I went to ask Raph and Leo for permission before I did anything. I know, I know, you're a grown up and can make your own choices but-"

"Casey just stop." Karai said, trying to just get her head straight. "First off, I think it's really sweet that you went and asked my brothers for permission. Second I…I…" She stuttered, she continued to mover her mouth but it wasn't long before words stopped coming out.

"Look if you don't want to get married I get it. I just thought-"

"No I do," Karai cut him off, Casey looked quizzically at her.

"You do?" He asked skeptically and she nodded.

"I do," she repeated

"Are you sure?" Casey questioned, still skeptical.

"Yes, I'm sure." She insisted, and she was. Hours ago, when Justin had mentioned it, she had thought the idea nice but assuming he was wrong about what he'd heard she hadn't taken it seriously. Now that Casey had confirmed what their son said as true she was certain of one thing and only one thing; that she had never in her life wanted anything more. "I want to marry you," she confirmed again as her face finally broke into a smile, along with Casey's as the words finally got through his head.

With a relieved laugh the former hockey player sprung up from his seat and lifted Karai off her stool, picking her up and spinning her around and around in a circle.

"I love you, but I'm still nauseous from the sewer and this isn't helping." She murmured into his ear after he had spun her around three or four times.

"Oh, sorry." He said sheepishly as he set her down

"It's ok," she laughed, they let a few seconds pass in silence before finally Casey leaned down and kissed Karai, so happy she said yes.

* * *

 **Author's Note: I just want to thank you guys so much for all the great reviews, and also i'm really sorry i took so long with this chapter, i had a lot going on this week and just didn't have the time. Also for anyone who's wondering or who watches Castle that is the show Donnie quoted, i'm a big Castle fan and when i was writing that scene it just reminded me of that quote, so i figured why not work it in! Thanks again for the support guys, for those of you who read Baby of Mine, i hope this sequel is making you just as happy!**


	11. And it's not even 9 am yet!

"But what do I do about the clone Madeline?" Justin questioned the next morning as he and Karai walked back to the apartment to grab his backpack for school.

"Nothing," Karai said sternly, "Justin I know it's hard, but you are not to do anything about that clone." She continued as they walked into the building.

"But she hurt Madeline!" He whined

"And she'll hurt you too if she knows you're onto her," Karai reminded as she opened the door to their apartment.

"But mom-" Justin began to whine, but Karai cut him off.

"Justin I know you're concerned about Madeline, but right now the best way to help her is to keep quiet until your Uncles can figure out how to stop the Kraang." She explained and with a pout Justin went into his bedroom and shortly returned with his backpack. When he came back his face was still set in a frown and so Karai bent down to his height. "Please, promise me you won't say anything to that clone." She pleaded with him and he gave a halfhearted nod.

"I promise," he muttered.

* * *

Back in the lair Irma was watching over the unconscious little girl in Donnie's lab. From what she understood Donnie wasn't exactly keen on leaving people alone in his lab, but April had talked him into trusting her to be in here. This whole thing is crazy; she never thought she would get out of that prison but on the off chance she did, she thought it would be due to the government discovering the Kraang not a bunch of mutant ninja's. Looking down at Madeline, Irma began to think back to her time spent in the cell and all the nights she heard this very little girl just a few cells away; putting as much effort into escape as Angel. So she wonders if all of these injuries are really from the clone or if Madeline gave herself any of them. Just then she is snapped out of her thoughts as the lab door opens, but its April who walks in.

"I thought you said you had a class this morning?" The former prisoner asks but April shook her head.

"It got cancelled," she explains, "Irma listen, I know you're not the girl I became friends with and for many reasons I'm relieved about that. But I do hope that you'll trust me and the guys," she practically pleaded.

"I do trust you April," Irma said matter-of-factly, catching the red head off guard.

"You do?" She asked

"It's been a long time but as far as I can remember you never gave me a reason not to, look I'm trying to adjust to all this as quickly as I can-"

"No Irma," April interrupted, "you've been in isolation a long time, and we all get that this is going to take some time." She continued and Irma nodded gratefully. "Do you, sorry to ask this but-"

"April, if I can help I will, I want to take these dirt bags down." Irma interrupted and April nodded.

"Do you have any idea if their targets are random or is there a connection?" She asked and for a second Irma gave it some thought, before shaking her head.

"I'm sorry, I have no idea; I don't even know who the other prisoners were." She confessed

"That's ok," April assured her when she looked to be sorry for her lack of information. "The guys say you can stay here as long as you need, but when you think you're ready to go back to the surface you're welcome to stay with me." She offered and at that Irma perked up a little bit.

"Are you sure?" She asked and April nodded

"Of course," She said and she wasn't expecting it when Irma wrapped her in a tight hug, thanking her over and over again. "No problem Irma," she said, awkwardly returning the hug.

* * *

Should she be in school? Well probably but Angel really has no idea if that clone of hers is going to school or not, so maybe she shouldn't be in school. But according to Casey their father hadn't seen her in two months, since the night her scumbag 'friends' handed her over to the Kraang in order to settle a deal. So odds are the clone isn't here, hasn't been here, and thanks to Casey working with their dad he was able to tell her that the man would be home for another three hours. She raised her hand, formed a fist, but didn't knock. How could she? True it's not her fault she had been MIA for the past two months, but it is her fault she fell in with the purple dragons, it is her fault that her and her father have a less than stellar relationship, and it is her fault that she joined the Foot Clan which started all this.

"Come on Angel," she muttered to herself, finally pushing herself to knock on the apartment door, no turning back now.

It only took a minute, but that's a minute that felt as though it lasted an eternity. When the door finally swung open Angel found herself looking up at a man roughly six foot five, dressed in old jeans and an even older t-shirt.

"Angel," his gruff voice just barely whispered.

Forgetting her age, forgetting her pride, forgetting literally every single thing that separated her from the little girl she was at the age of nine, Angel threw her arms around her father and began to cry.

"I'm sorry daddy," she sobbed against him, she hadn't expected herself to cry but that didn't mean she had any intentions on stopping.

Slowly her father wrapped his arms around her, but once he did he held on tight and buried one hand in his daughter's hair.

"I'm so, so sorry." Angel continued to cry, "I'm not going back. I'm done I promise." She wept, relishing it when she felt her dad place a gentle kiss on the top of her head.

"It's ok," he said as he led her inside without letting go, kicking the door closed behind Angel. Once the door was closed he finally pulled out of the hug, and placing his hands on his daughter's shoulders looked her in the eyes. "What happened?" He asked seriously, because for something to push Angel not only to leave crime but to also reduce her to tears it had to be bad.

Angel told him the whole story; and at first she could tell he was skeptical of if this was even the real her he was talking to, but she convinced him. She also told him what she knew about the Kraang's plan, and of her own.

"Angel-" he tried to protest

"Dad. These things are living weapons, and now that their originals are free the Kraang are only going to speed up their plans. By this time next month there won't be a single person in this city who you can trust, not really. Take Jen and get out of here." She instructed.

"Angel I'm not leaving this city without you and your brother." Mr. Jones argued, a very clear finality to his voice.

"We can't leave, the turtles are going to need Casey to fight and so far I'm the only one with information on the plans." She tried to reason with her father.

"Then tell the turtles everything you know and come with Jen and me," he pleaded

"It's not that simple," she argued

"Why not?" he demanded

"Because they need my help!" She exclaimed

"With what? Once you tell them everything what do they need specifically you for?" Her father demanded and Angel had no answer, which did not surprise her dad in the least.

"You said you were done." He said, his voice so calm it was scary. "You just showed up in tears, crying that you're done!" He shouted

"Dad I am!" Angel shouted back

"For how long?" He demanded of her, "Huh? How long are you done for? Because right now it looks like you being done barely lasted fifteen minutes!" He exclaimed, rising to his feet, which was mimicked by Angel.

"So you want me to just leave when I could be helping?" She demanded, "You don't have a problem with Casey helping!" She shouted

"Because that world hasn't poisoned Casey!" Mr. Jones shouted back, and that broke Angel. She felt herself losing control of her tears, that was the last straw, but her father kept going. "Casey helps people! You help people for all of five minutes before some lowlife asks you to commit a felony, and then you do it just to prove that you can!" He shouted

"That's not true!" Angel sobbed

"Then what is?" Her father demanded, but she couldn't answer him.

Why does she do it?

Because she loves the danger of getting caught. She doesn't do it to prove that she can, she does to see if she can. But that's no better than her father's accusation, in fact it's probably worse. Finally, when he realized that she wasn't going to say anything, her dad let out a sigh.

"It's hard enough for me to watch your brother put is life on the line for the safety of others, but I can't keep watching you do it for a quick buck here and there." He said before sighing again, this was the absolute last thing he wanted to do.

"Dad I just told you, I'm going to be like Casey." Angel was begging now, for what she wasn't exactly sure, but she was sure that it's worth it.

"You're a lot like me Angel. When I was a kid and I found out your brother was on the way, I tried to give up my bad habits piece by piece. But I couldn't. I had to quit everything cold turkey, I've seen you try to follow your brother before but the longest you last is a month before the devil pulls you back in." He said, Angel didn't want to see them but at the same time she couldn't look away, from the tears forming in his eyes. "I'm sorry Angel but until you're done with crime, and I mean really done, get out." He could barely finish his sentence.

At first Angel just looked at him in total shock, but then her face hardened and she wiped away her tears best she could.

"Well then looks like I'm staying, because I'm done." She said before turning and marching off not out the door, but to her room, where she flopped down on her bed and bawled her eyes out.

* * *

"Are you sure you don't want Donnie doing this?" Casey asked as he and Karai sat in the doctor's office, Karai lying on the examination bed while he sat in a nearby chair.

"Yes because I don't plan on having the baby in the lair and so I need to actually have a hospital file." She answered and Casey had to give her that, not that he doesn't trust doctors but… no that's it he doesn't trust doctors. As far as he's concerned doctors have very little idea as to what they're doing, and will NEVER admit to a mistake and-

"Hello," The cheerful voice of the doctor coming in interrupted his thoughts, "How are we today?" She asked

"Fine," Karai answered politely and Casey couldn't help but smirk, he could tell that _fine_ was going to be her answer to everything if it meant she could get out of here sooner.

"That's good to hear, most first time moms are usually so nervous for the first ultrasound." The doctor commented

"I'm not a first time mom," Karai blurted, instantly regretting it the moment she did, Justin's records were always a mess that she was afraid she'd screw up if she said the wrong thing.

The doctor curiously began flipping through her charts, looking for any records of another child.

"I didn't live in New York when my son Justin was born, and the hospital he was born in had a fire two years ago; most of the records were lost." She lied, mildly impressing Casey with the quick story.

"Well that's too bad," the doctor commented but with no further reason for suspicion she set the file down on a counter and smiled. "So shall we begin?" She asked.

She seemed like a nice lady, she was African-American and appeared to be in her early thirties from what Casey could tell. She was a little too cheery at nine in the morning for both Karai and Casey's liking, but other than that she seemed great. Casey's thoughts on her, however, were interrupted when the strange yet familiar sound of a heartbeat filled the room. Casey thought he stopped breathing for a minute, he didn't know why considering he's heard this before, but it was still so surreal to him. The only thought on his mind aside from how amazing this is was how he hoped Karai didn't stop breathing for as long as he felt he had, because that obviously would not be good.

"Heartbeat's strong," the doctor said half to them and half to herself as she moved the ultrasound wand across Karai's stomach. "Now let's see if we can get a picture," she said, her eyes focused entirely on the screen. Before long a fuzzy black and white image in the general shape of a baby appeared. "There we go," the doctor said proudly, though her words fell on deaf ears.

Karai and Casey were both mesmerized by the screen, more so than they were the first time considering this time Casey wasn't oblivious to it's location and Karai wasn't worried it had died. This time they were both staring with unbelieving eyes at the clearly identifiable baby on the screen.

"I'll give you two a moment," the doctor said before she left the room, the image of the baby still up on the screen.

Despite it having only been two and a half weeks since Donnie checked on the baby with an ultrasound it had grown what both parents considered to be a lot since then. Of course maybe it only seemed that way because the doctor had managed to get it onto the center of the screen while Donnie had it in the corner, and of course the baby could've moved since then but that was doubtful as it didn't seem to have any interest in moving even in the slightest right now.

"Whoa," Casey finally broke the silence

"Yeah," Karai agreed, she tried to think of something else to say but her mind was drawing a total blank.

Fortunately that was when the doctor came back, now holding a few papers in her hand.

"Ok, based on this sonogram I'm going to put you at eleven and a half weeks along and place your due date at September 16th. Also during the next ultrasound we should be able to tell the gender of the baby, if you want to know that is, any questions?" She finished

"Yeah I have a question," Casey spoke up, causing Karai's face to pale in horror. "So she's a martial arts instructor and she keeps telling me that she's fine still doing that but I think she's crazy." He said and at that Karai rolled her eyes, were they seriously having this conversation in the doctor's office?  
But the doctor chuckled, seemingly finding the question amusing. "Yes she is perfectly fine to continue with her work, although if I were you I would consider taking a less hands on approach when you're a little further along." She advised

"How far?" Casey asked before Karai even had the chance to shut him up, despite having stopped charging into battle he was still worried that she would ignore any warnings and keep sparring when doing so was no longer safe.

"I would say about four and a half months, but depending on both the baby your skill level could probably get away with it until five months." She answered and Karai looked up at Casey with a mocking smile but his face was nothing short of stern.

"Four and a half," he told her strictly and she just rolled her eyes as she took the towel the doctor held out to her and wiped the gel off her stomach.

"We'll see," she said, not that she'll admit it right now but she probably will stop sparring closer to four and a half months than five.

"You're impossible," Casey muttered as they walked out of the examination room a few minutes later.

"So are you, that's why we work." Karai shot back, Casey decided it might be best not to comment.

"So are we going to find out if it's a boy or a girl?" He asked instead

"Do you want to?" Karai asked but Casey shrugged

"Do you want to?" He repeated her question back to her, she gave it a minute or two of thought but ended up giving him nothing more than a shrug in response.

"I don't know," she said, "on one hand knowing would definitely make shopping easier but on the other hand it's probably more fun to be surprised." She reasoned as they walked out of the building.

"Well we don't have to figure it out today," Casey said and Karai nodded in agreement, out of all things going on in their lives right now the gender of their baby is the least worrisome at the moment.


	12. Change in Condition

A few weeks had passed since Madeline was brought to the lair, just a little over a month in fact. Not much had changed; Donnie was still trying to create a serum capable of dissolving the clones, or at least hurting them. Madeline was still in her comatose state and Irma was still staying down in the lair, though she was getting more and more comfortable around people and had ventured to the surface a few times for only an hour or so. As for Mickey and Damian they were staying with Damian's brother, claiming that they had an issue with their landlord. The only thing that wasn't business as usual was Karai, and that was to be expected. She was just entering her fifth month of pregnancy, and although Casey had gotten her to stop volunteering in the spar ring at work she was still training Justin. She needed to do something and it's not like Justin could actually throw an attack she can't defend, even with her growing belly. So pretty much everything was the same as always, well until tonight that is.

Casey and Karai were both sound asleep, or as sound asleep as two people who live in a constant state of high alert can be. But Casey woke up quickly at the sudden action of Karai jolting into a sitting position, one hand flying to the side of her stomach and grabbing it as she sat there with a panicked look on her face.

"Are you ok?" He asked, sitting up besides her.

"I-I don't know," she stuttered, breathing slowly and carefully, fearfully, as she stared ahead at nothing in particular before she finally forced herself to look down at her stomach. She's showing more now, her belly stands out more visibly and it's obvious that she's pregnant. Slowly, she relaxed her fingers but did not mover her hand off her belly. "I-I felt this sharp pain, but maybe, maybe I was just dreaming." She explained, knowing that Casey was most likely mentally driving himself crazy trying to figure out what had her so worried and it would only be a matter of time before he asked again.

With the knowledge of what had woken her, Casey's face morphed to match that of his fiancée's. They both sat there in silence, holding their breath and just staring at the spot where Karai had placed her hand, neither of them exactly sure what it was they were waiting for. Finally, when nothing happened and she was convinced nothing was going to happen, Karai moved her hand away and began gathering the blankets she had tossed off of herself when she sat up.

"Yeah, just a dream." She decided, "Sorry I woke you," she apologized as Casey lay back down.

"Don't be," Casey said without giving it a second thought as his head hit the pillow.

Karai moved to lie back down as well, but just as her head hit the pillow she felt the pain again and sat back up, once again clutching her stomach.

"Nope, not a dream!" She exclaimed as she cringed and this time Casey was much faster sitting up.

"What is it?" He exclaimed in a panic, although despite his panic he knew that was a stupid question. If Karai knew what it was she probably wouldn't have been writing it off as a dream.

"Do I look like I-" she was about to retort with Casey's own unspoken thoughts, but she cut herself off when the pain hit her again. It was lighter this time, still there but lighter. She also felt just the very last bit of its impact against the side of her hand, and now that she was actually awake she realized exactly what it was.

"Get up, we're going to the hospital." Casey said as he started to climb out of bed, fully convinced that something was wrong.

"No it's just the baby," Karai told him as she leaned over and grabbed his arm in order to pull him back down, a smile spreading across her face.

"I know, something's wrong so we're going-"

"No Casey the baby's kicking," She cut him off, and for a moment he just stood where he was.

"What?" He asked her, kicking? Was she sure? Of course he knows that unborn babies kick but their unborn baby had never done it before.

"Yeah come here," she said excitedly, practically bouncing in her spot as she adjusted her position and pulled him back onto the mattress.

It was a rare sight to see her this happy, and even stranger Casey was almost sure this outburst of excitement wasn't due to any hormone induced mood swings. Most of those she was halfway decent at containing, and they were normally outbursts of anger or sadness, rarely did she ever start giggling like a schoolgirl. But seeing her this happy put at least some of Casey's fears that something was wrong aside, and so he complied with her and returned to the bed where he allowed Karai to take hold of his wrist and guide his hand to her stomach. He felt her rounded belly through her t-shirt, well his t-shirt. But he didn't feel anything strange or different than usual, and he could tell that Karai didn't either.

"Come on, come on." She began to mutter under her breath, they stayed like that for what felt like forever, until Casey finally let out a sigh.

"Karai I don't think-" he started to say but he cut himself off, or rather the fluttering feeling of something quickly tapping against his hand cut him off. The feeling was light against his hand, but it was there.

"Told you," Karai said smugly but Casey was too far into his state of awe to remark.

He felt another kick against his palm, this one harder than the last and judging by the pain that briefly overtook Karai's face he could tell that it felt harder to her too.

"That bad?" He asked but Karai shook her head

"I'll get used to it," she replied; halfway through her answer Casey felt another kick against his hand.

"Man, the kid's going crazy in there." He exclaimed

"Just figured out how to move its legs, something tells me I'm not going back to sleep anytime soon." Karai said, knowing that more likely than not their baby was going to be up all night experimenting with it's new ability.

As if to confirm her suspicions the baby hit her with another kick, not quite as hard as some of the previous ones but still hard enough to be felt.

"Want to try and go to sleep?" Casey asked but Karai shook her head, even if it weren't for her child kicking her every five seconds she was much too awake at this point to fall back asleep.

"No," she said before swinging her legs over the side of the bed and getting up.

"Where are you going?" Casey asked as she walked out of their bedroom

"Bathroom," Karai called over her shoulder and Casey couldn't help but chuckle silently to himself; Karai used to be able to hold her bladder for a whole day if she needed to, but these days she almost always has to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.

* * *

Meanwhile, down in the lair, there were also some changes taking place. For the past few weeks Madeline had laid perfectly silent and still on the medical bed, the only change in her condition was that she no longer required an oxygen mask. But tonight she was dreaming, dreaming of being home with her family and playing with her little brother. But slowly her dream began to fade and it was replaced with the images of her new reality as her eyes finally fluttered open. She found herself in a dark room, not her cell and not her bedroom, but a dark and unfamiliar room. Her eyes widened instantly as she sat up, screaming in pain when she unknowingly ripped an IV needle out of her arm.

"MOM! MOMMY! MOMMY!" She screamed, clutching her arm in pain and fear. She didn't really know if she believed that her mom would come running, or if her mom was even here, but she was scared, and she wanted her mom.

But it wasn't her mom that came to her aid.

It was a woman she did not know, and when the woman moved to touch her Madeline jumped off the bed, only to find that she did not have the strength to stand and collapse to the ground. She sat there sobbing, finally allowing it as the strange woman gathered her into her arms and helped her stand. She didn't notice it at first, she was too busy sobbing, but hurrying into the room behind the woman were four mutant turtles.

"Madeline, Madeline it's alright." The woman said softly as she lifted her up and placed her back onto the bed she had woken up on.

"Oh man, she pulled her IV out," a voice groaned, coming to stand closer to the bed. That was when Madeline noticed the four turtles and let out a scream before jumping into the mysterious woman's lap for protection.

"Not our biggest problem right now Donnie," the turtle wearing a red bandana said.

As Madeline sat in Irma's lap sobbing the guys all tried to decide what to do, fortunately for them Irma already had that figured out.

"Would you guys mind giving me a minute alone with her?" She asked

"Sure," Leo agreed, glad at least one of them had a plan.

So with that decided the guys walked out of the lab and left Irma and Madeline to their own devices. Once they were gone Irma turned her focus onto the sobbing girl in her lap.

"Shhh, shh, Madeline it's ok." She said in an attempt to sooth the girl.

"Who, who are, are you?" Madeline choked out

"My name is Irma, I was captured by the Kraang too. But we're safe now, the turtles are friends." She explained softly

"Where's my, where's my mommy?" Madeline stuttered out through her tears, Irma gave a sigh.

* * *

Karai decided to go get a drink of water before going back to bed, but on her way she walked past Justin's open door and saw him lying in his bed watching his portable DVD player. He looked up upon seeing her, knowing that he's not supposed to have the DVD player in his bed.

"I couldn't sleep," he defended, "this movie always puts me to sleep." He continued but when his mom came walking into his room he was sure that he was still in trouble and so he sat up and shut the player.

"Relax, I believe you." She said as she took a seat on the side of his bed. "But I have something to show you," she continued, she could still feel the baby moving around inside of her and giving no signs that it had any intentions of stopping.

"What?" Justin asked and so Karai reached out and gently grabbed his hand, guiding it to a spot above her bellybutton where she had last felt the kicks.

It only took a second before Justin suddenly felt something tap against his hand, and when it did he jerked his hand back in surprise.

"What was that?" He asked, because he's pretty sure that isn't normal.

"It's the baby, it's kicking me." Karai explained and in response her son looked at her as if she were crazy.

"Isn't that bad?" He asked

"No it's good, it's the baby's way of letting me know it's ok." She explained

"Does it hurt?" Justin asked, now more curious than disturbed

"A little," Karai responded and Justin frowned upon hearing that, apparently he didn't like the idea of his future sibling hurting their mother, even if it was with good reason. He leaned his face close to Karai's stomach, and at first she wasn't quite sure what he was doing, but when he started talking she couldn't help but laugh.

"Hi baby, I'm glad you're ok and everything but it's not nice to hurt mommy. I know she's really tough but we're not supposed to kick her outside of training, or hit her, or anything else. So if you HAVE to kick her to tell her you're ok please do it gentle." He said and when he noticed his mom laughing he shrank back on himself, suddenly afraid he had done something wrong.

"No Justin," Karai pleaded when she realized she had made him uncomfortable, "don't stop, I didn't mean to laugh." She said and just then she felt another hard kick, and with his hand still pressed against her stomach Justin felt it too. "See, the baby doesn't want you to stop either." She said and with the idea that his future sibling actually wanted to listen to him Justin's face turned to a smile.

Karai moved and lay down on her side, Justin doing the same and pressing his head just below her chest so that he could lie with his face right in front of her stomach. "I guess you don't really know what training is do you?" Justin began his one sided conversation. "You see, we're from a family of ninja's, the Hamato clan, and training is when we learn how to be better ninjas. But you can't ever tell anyone. All of our Uncles are ninja's and so is Auntie April and so is mommy. Auntie Angel and me are still learning, and daddy's not still learning but he says he isn't really a ninja. Oh I guess I should tell you who I am. I'm your big brother Justin and…" Karai closed her eyes and listened happily as Justin babbled on about their family, telling his little brother or sister everything they would need to know when they arrived here in the world. She was slightly amazed when she felt the baby's kicks get progressively softer and fewer between, as if Justin was actually soothing the baby to sleep. If that were true than the baby wasn't the only one Justin was putting to sleep; as his words were slowing down and becoming more and more interrupted by yawns, while Karai found that with her unborn child no longer keeping her awake sleep was getting closer and closer to overtaking her. Finally she decided that she needed to go back to her and Casey's bed before she fell asleep here with Justin, who was just about asleep as well.

"I think it's time for bed Justin," Karai said softly

"Hm? Ok," He said before leaning up just enough to give her a kiss on the cheek, "Goodnight mommy," he said and Karai tried to get up so she could re-tuck him in but he put his little arm around her waist to stop her before she could. When she looked at him in confusion he ignored her and simply pressed a kiss to her belly through the fabric of her shirt. "Goodnight baby," he said and Karai couldn't help but smile at his actions.

She then proceeded to tuck him in for the second time that night before giving him a kiss on the forehead.

"Goodnight Justin," she said, she then left and returned to her room where Casey had already fallen back asleep.

* * *

Back in the lair Madeline had finally calmed down and allowed Donnie to re-inject the IV needle into her arm while everything was being explained to her.

"Ok," she finally murmured when Leo was done recounting everything that had happened to her.

"Ok?" He asked, he had just told a six-year-old girl that she had been replaced by an evil clone, in a coma for a little over a month, and that until the clone is taken care of she can't go home. How is _ok_ all she has to say?

"Mhmm," she said with a small nod

"Do you understand?" Raph questioned, equally uneasy about her reaction.

"Yes," Madeline replied, all four turtles and Irma exchanged glances.

"Ok then, so you don't mind staying down here?" Mikey questioned

"No, I understand." Madeline said

"Ok then… stay in here for the rest of the night and we'll figure everything else out in the morning." Donnie instructed and Madeline nodded, but as the adults left she spoke up.

"Irma?" She asked, "Could you stay in here until I fall asleep?"

Irma looked very apprehensive about the idea, but she couldn't deny the girl and walked back to the medical bed. She took a seat on the edge of the bed, very unsure of what to do with herself. Madeline didn't seem to notice her discomfort, and if she did she ignored it. No she just lay there, avoiding eye contact and staring blankly into space.

"So… are you upset that you have to live down here for a little while?" She finally asked but Madeline shrugged.

"My daddy says that whining when you can't control something doesn't help anything." She said

"Your dad sounds like a smart man," Irma said, _that or really impatient._ She added in her thoughts.

"He is," Madeline said, "what about your dad?" She asked, rolling onto her back and finally looking at Irma.

Irma let out a sigh; she had already explained her previous living situation to the others when they asked if she had anyone that needed to know she's alive because they assumed someone had been worried about her these past few years, they assumed wrong.

"I don't have a dad," she admitted, "or a mom. I think that's why the Kraang chose me out of all the kids in my school, I didn't have a family to worry about me." She continued; she had grown up bouncing around the foster system since she was eleven years old, and her life before that wasn't exactly great.

Upon hearing Irma's answer Madeline got up and crawled into her lap, kneeling on her legs so that she could reach up and give her a hug.

"If the Kraang ever take you again, I'll worry about you." She said and with a slight chuckle Irma hugged the girl back before laying her back down, causing her to giggle.

"Thanks, now go to sleep." She instructed

"Aww," Madeline whined

"Yes," Irma said

"Aww," Madeline continued.

"Bed now, or I'll leave." The older girl threatened, resulting in Madeline scampering back under the thin sheet Donnie had kept covering her the past few weeks.

"No, I'll go to sleep!" She promised, "but could you tell me a story?" She asked

"Uh ok," Irma said, trying to think of a story. After a minute or two of thinking she just began retelling every fairytale she ever knew.

* * *

"MADELINE!" Justin shouted, racing into the lab the next morning and jumping up on the medical bed; wrapping his friend in a tight hug.

Leo had called Karai, Casey, and April to tell them about last night's revelation. Since it's Saturday morning and Justin isn't in school, Karai doesn't teach until the afternoon, and Casey's only on call they were able to come while April got called into work for some emergency and she said she'd be along as soon as she could.

"Sorry, we probably shouldn't have told him what this is about." Casey said sheepishly as he watched his son all but jump his friend who looked extremely taken back by the action, but returned the hug regardless.

Justin wasn't oblivious to Madeline's apprehensiveness, and he soon realized that the Madeline he had become friends with, the Madeline who had tied his shoes for him, was not the real Madeline.

"Justin? What are you doing here?" She asked him as he pulled away

"This is my family," he answered her simply, at first she looked surprised, but then she just took hold of his hand.

"Then will you stay with me?" She asked shyly, "Donnie said he wanted to give me a check up and I'm, I'm scared and I think Irma's sick of me." She explained

"Madeline I told you I would stay!" Irma explained, although she had been up all night with the scared little girl and she could probably tell that she was at her patients end.

"Aw let Justin stay, I don't really like you staying in one room for hours on end and I've checked him up so many times he can explain it better to Maddie than I could." Donnie insisted, really the idea was to get Madeline to trust as many of them as possible, or at least someone who can explain things better than Irma who is still adjusting herself.

"Fine," Irma agreed extremely willing to get five minutes out of this lab.

Leaving Donnie in there with the kids, the others all filed out in order to give them some privacy.

"Tired?" Leo questioned his sister when he caught her trying to hide a yawn.

"Yeah," she answered, "the baby woke me up a little after midnight, went back to sleep for maybe an hour, then woke me up again and I didn't go back to sleep." She explained

"Wait the baby woke you up? I thought you said you were sure you're done getting sick?" Leo questioned but Karai shook her head.

"Not that, it finally figured out how to move and was very insistent that I know that." She explained; Leo was about to say something else when Mikey interrupted the conversation.

"Uh guys, you might want to look at this." He said, he was watching the news, and it was flashing reports of a chaotic scene unfolding downtown.

"This is Carlos Chiang O'Brien Gambe reporting live from the scene of downtown Manhattan where some not so ordinary citizens seem to have gone crazy and are attacking other civilians by lifting heavy objects such as cars and telephone poles with their bare hands and using them as weapons." He said and that was when Donnie came racing in from the lab.

"Guys! April just called from the news van! There's- oh good you have it on."


	13. Fight Inside

They stood there frozen for a minute or two, watching the news play out, before the footage was finally cut.

"We need to go," Leo decided and with the others all in agreement they headed for the exit to the lair.

"Whoa, what's going on?" Karai questioned as she saw all the guys rushing from the lair.

"The Kraang are making their move with the clones," Casey hastily explained

"What?!" Karai demanded

"Just stay here," He said in frustration, knowing exactly what was going through her head right about now, or thinking he did anyway.

"Casey-"

"Karai I mean it." He said seriously

"I know I just-"

"Karai no!" He seethed but she just gripped the fabric of his shirt up on his shoulder.

"I know. I was just going to say, be careful." She said and Casey nodded before leaning in and giving her a kiss.

"No worries," he said before he hurried to catch up with the other guys.

* * *

Considering everything she's been through since she was fifteen one would think that April would be more used to the bizarre attacks that constantly taking place in New York but no, when work called her telling her to get to an emergency downtown she had honestly assumed that it was nothing more serious than a car accident. But instead she reported to the scene downtown to find people with glowing red eyes and freakish levels of strength terrorizing the other citizens. It was crazy; people were running everywhere to get away from the Kraang clones, and the irony is that April wasn't supposed to leave until her boss found out what was happening to these people.

Suddenly she noticed Mikey signaling her from a building across the street, and in the confusion of the attack she darted from the van and over to the guys.

"What's going on?" Leo questioned

"I don't know. According to my boss they just started attacking, apparently some people thought they were trying to start a riot." She explained

"So how do we stop them?" Casey questioned

"I haven't had any luck finding their weakness, though that sample I pulled off Madeline did help me reverse engineer their make-up. First off the insides of these things are nothing but goop, but more importantly is while they are all capable of independent action based on their own unique situation they're all linked on a Kraang communication network. If April can disrupt the psychic link then hopefully they'll all shut down!" Donnie exclaimed

"Sounds like a plan, but what happens if instead of shutting down they all go berserk?" April questioned.

"Then… we're probably dead." Donnie concluded

"And what are the chances of that happening?" Raph asked, knowing full well that the chances were probably pretty high.

"Off hand… I'd say around 42%," Donnie answered

"Well less than fifty." Casey accepted the odds, though he had to admit that the high chance of certain death still made him nervous.

Leo was about to give the order for April to give it a shot, when footsteps skidding to a stop behind the group made them all jump. But when they turned they relaxed, because it was only Angel.

"Ok, what's the plan?" She asked.

* * *

"I see Madeline's attached herself to you," Karai commented as she placed two slices of Mikey's leftover pizza in the microwave. Irma was sitting at a stool at the table.

"Yeah, I barely got any sleep last night." She commented; Karai, of course, only smirked.

"You and me both, and sooner or later you can hand her back to where she came from; I'm stuck with Justin and this other one forever." She joked.

"So you and Casey still don't know what it is?" Irma questioned and Karai shook her head.

"I don't think we're going to find out, although I am getting pretty sick of just calling it 'it'." She said; the conversation about whether or not to find out the gender of the baby hadn't really been revisited since the first ultrasound, unless you count a few stray comments here and there. One thing they had decided on was that even if they did choose to find out the gender they weren't going to tell anyone aside from Justin.

"I can understand that," Irma said and just then the microwave beeped. "So how are you doing?" She continued as Karai handed her a slice of the pizza and shrugged while taking a bite of her own.

"I don't know," she replied, "best as can be expected I guess."

"You miss fighting?" Irma questioned and Karai shrugged.

"Sort of, I gave up patrolling when Justin was a baby and I got over it pretty quick, and it's not like giving up fighting all together is permanent. I think I just need some time to adjust." She answered, she'd never tell Irma or anyone else except maybe for Casey, because sooner or later he's going to figure it out anyway; but giving up training isn't the main thing bothering her.

Everyone focuses on it; they all figure that she's been a Kunoichi all her life and so giving up every form of fighting she has must be the hardest part of all this. But they're wrong. Sure she loves sparring and training hands on, but she can go back to all that once her pregnancy is over. The main thing bothering her, stupid and petty as it sounds, is gaining weight. Of course she knows that's just how pregnancy works, but she just can't help but come close to hating looking at herself in the mirror. As a kid sure she was tall, but she was practically skin and bones. When she got older she filled out a little more, but she still considered herself to be thin. But over her fourth month the baby had grown a lot and as a result so did her belly. It isn't a lot when you think about it, at least not when she thought about how small it would seem compared to being nine months pregnant. But not once in her life had Karai ever pressed her hand against her stomach and not had her palm flat, nor had she ever taken off her shirt and not been able to see at least the outline of her last set of ribs. She had mentioned that last thing to Casey once as a joke and he said he always found the fact that he could see her last set of ribs slightly concerning. It had never concerned her; in fact she always took pride in it. Therefor she's not exactly used to, say, trying to do something simple such as sit down or fit into a cramped space and having consider the fact the size of her stomach might prevent her from doing so; which it's starting to.

"Huh…" Irma murmured to herself

"What?" Karai asked, coming back to reality.

"I know I've been away from society for awhile, but aren't six-year-olds normally loud?" She questioned and Karai laughed.

"They're playing in Mikey's room, the walls aren't exactly soundproof but they're enough to keep the noise from reaching the kitchen." She explained and Irma nodded. "So how are you doing?" She asked

"Same as you, best as can be expected." Irma replied with a shrug as she took a bite of her pizza. "Although, I never realized how much I missed real food."

"Well I don't know if Mikey's leftovers count as real food but I know what you mean; Shredder held me captive for two months, on separate occasions, and both times getting back I found that I had never been more excited for dinner." She commented, although some days in the last couple months were starting to come close.

"Shredder?" Irma asked

"Oroku Saki," Karai clarified, realizing that she had only ever told Irma his real name. "After I learned the truth he locked me up in a cell until the guys busted me out a month later. I was home for about two weeks before Casey lost Justin to Tiger Claw and I wound up making a deal with Shredder." She explained

"Tiger Claw?" Irma questioned

"One of Shredder's mutant henchmen, haven't seen him lately." Karai answered before taking another minute to wonder about Tiger Claw; they had run into the cat a couple of times since Shredder's death but he claimed to no longer be with the Foot Clan. He had been hired to stay until the demise of Splinter, and when that came to pass apparently he didn't have much interest in sticking around.

Before Irma could ask another question the sound of screaming filled the lair, and not the alarming type of screaming. It was the screaming of two young children chasing each other throughout the underground home. Only when Madeline appeared and quite literally jumped into Irma's lap did the two women realize that the children were not getting along.

"Hey, hey!" Karai exclaimed as she struggled to wrangle Justin as he ran by her, and she hated how she nearly failed because her usual tactic of pulling him back against her proved to not work so well with her growing belly. But she didn't have time to focus on that right now, instead she had to focus on why Justin was giggling while Madeline was close to tears. "What happened?" She demanded

"Nothing," Justin giggled

"We were playing and then he started acting like a Kraang and chasing me!" Madeline accused

"We were playing cops and robbers!" Justin defended

"You didn't have to be a Kraang cop!" His friend continued to shout from her position on Irma's lap.

"Ok, ok." Karai said, "Justin no Kraang games," she instructed, Justin should've assumed that but for whatever reason he didn't; but he'd be in trouble if he pulled something stupid like that again.

"Ok," Justin agreed and with that his mother let him go but Madeline didn't move.

"Apologize to Madeline," Karai prompted, hoping that would get the little girl to follow Justin back to Mikey's room where they had been playing.

"Why?" Justin whined; his mother gave him a glare in response.

"For scaring her," she instructed, Justin gave it a second or two of contemplation before he looked up at Madeline.

"Sorry Madeline, I didn't mean to scare you." He said and, much to Irma's relief, Madeline climbed down off the older woman's lap.

"It's ok," she accepted and a minute later the two were rushing off back to Mikey's room.

* * *

"Any day now Red!" Casey shouted as he and Angel held off the attacking clones while the guys worked a few blocks away, out of range of the news cameras.

"I'm trying! It's kind of hard to tap into the psyche of something that doesn't have a brain!" April shouted back at her friend. She was fighting off her fair share of attackers too, and still trying to disrupt their orders, so naturally she was getting frustrated.

But just at that moment the clones stopped attacking, and they ran.

"What?" Casey asked in total bewilderment as he watched the city's attackers suddenly flee the streets.

"Where are they going?" Angel questioned

"I don't know, I never got through." April answered.

"Well someone did," Casey said

"Yeah, but who?" April asked him and for that he had no answer.

* * *

"I'm telling you Donnie, it wasn't me!" April exclaimed for the umpteenth time since she and the other's had returned to the lair and began going over what happened, with nothing else to report her boss had let her go for the day.

"April for the last time I hear you, but I don't know who else could've interfered with the clones like that." Donnie calmly explained; he always seems to have an excess of patience when it comes to the red head.

Karai was trying to focus on what they were saying, because even if she can't fight she needs to be prepared to help in any way she can, but her baby had apparently decided that lying still while the guys were out had been long enough. It wasn't kicking her anymore, just moving around inside her, and man did that feel weird. She partially blamed Justin for his brother or sister's apparent excitement; as it had been perfectly still and most likely asleep until he decided to pretend he was a Kraang and petrify Madeline. After those two ran through the kitchen screaming Karai had noticed a lot of light but still detectable movements coming from within her.

"Maybe it wasn't an interference," Casey suggested, pulling Karai out of her thoughts and back to the situation at hand. "Maybe the clones were just a distraction,"

"A distraction from what?" Raph inquired but his friend only shrugged, that was as far as he had gotten with that theory.

"There's only one way to find out," Leo said, "Who's up for a trip to TCRI?"


	14. What is Going on Here?

"So why didn't you want to go to TCRI?" Karai asked Casey later that night after Justin was in bed and the two of them were sitting on the couch watching TV.

"I got an early job tomorrow, besides the guys can handle it just fine on their own." He replied, "So, what did you do today?" He asked but Karai only sighed.

"Not much just hung around the lair and talked to Irma." She answered

"Look I know this is hard for you-" Casey began but he was quickly cut off.

"I don't want to hear it." She didn't snap, but her voice was still dead serious.

"Karai I'm just trying to-" Casey began in an attempt to make things better, consequently doing nothing but making them worse.

"I know, I know. You're just trying to help." She interrupted, "but you're not ok. I don't really care that much that I needed to give up training; yeah I wanted to do it for as long as possible but giving it up really doesn't bother me. What bothers me is you all treating me like I'm an idiot!" She exclaimed; Casey only looked at her in confusion.

"What? What are you talking about?" He demanded

"I'm talking about last night when you didn't believe me after I told you the baby was kicking, or this morning when I tried to tell you to be careful and you just assumed I was trying to go with you!" She pointed out, internally cursing herself because she could hear how angry she sounded and she did not mean to come off like that.

"Karai I don't think you're an idiot," Casey objected but Karai just rolled her eyes.

"Well then what do you think? Because clearly you still don't trust me." She argued

"Ugh we're back to this!?" He groaned, "Karai I trust you, I'm just looking out for you." He insisted

"Ugh! I know you're just looking out for me, and I appreciate that. But I can… you don't need to… ugh!" She groaned before adjusting her position so that she was facing away from Casey.

Casey was quiet for a minute or two, allowing Karai some time to cool down so she wouldn't be mad but not enough time that she had long enough to feel guilty about something and start to cry.

"Alright spill." He finally said, "What's up with you? And don't give me that 'I don't trust you' crap. Whatever it is that's bugging you, you can tell me." He continued softly, he may not know what's bothering her but he does know what isn't; and it sure isn't that she believes he doesn't trust her.

"It's nothing," she muttered

"It is not nothing," Casey argued and Karai gave a sigh before finally giving in.

"I hate this," she murmured, and she could feel Casey's quizzical stare on her even before she readjusted herself and faced him. "I don't hate giving up fighting, I hate not being physically able to fight. I hate that I have to buy new clothes every couple of months, and buy them a size or two too big. I hate that I can't hold onto Justin when I'm trying to calm him down, I hate that I feel like a balloon, and I hate that I can't even go and visit my brothers without feeling like the smell of the way to get there is hurting the baby!" She ranted and as she did Casey wrapped his arms around her and gently pulled her so that her back rested against his chest, which he knew better than to admit that pulling her against him was becoming increasingly difficult with her growing abdomen. "And I hate how I can't really sit right," She added as Casey pulled her against him and she realized just how slouched she actually was.

"You've always slouched like that," Casey commented, pressing a kiss to her temple.

"I used to be able to sit right if I wanted to," Karai muttered and Casey couldn't help but give a small laugh in response to that.

"I'm sure you still can," he said but Karai only scoffed.

"Barely." She muttered; Casey just tightened his grip on her.

"I know this is hard for you-" he began but Karai cut him off, not in the mood to listen to his pity.

"No you don't," she objected, he looked offended for a minute but chose to forget about it.

"Yes I do," he insisted, "I get that everything you've ever done in your life up to this point has been your choice. You grew up an only child and you chose what you did and didn't do, you chose whether or not to listen to Shredder. When the time came you chose to believe the guys, and you chose to go back with them after they rescued you. Justin wasn't created this way, you found him and eventually chose to keep him. You chose to give me a chance and you chose to leave the team. You've had a choice in everything up until now, now you're more or less being forced to miss out on a lot and you're being forced to look different than you ever have at any point in your life." He listed off

"Well if you're trying to make me feel worse you're doing a pretty good job." Karai huffed

"Sorry," Casey apologized, "I'm just saying that I understand this isn't easy for you, and I don't expect it to be. But I do expect you to tell me, or at least tell someone, if something's bothering you like this." He said

"Ok," Karai gave in.

* * *

Meanwhile at TCRI the guys were attempting to hack their way into one of the Kraang's advanced computers.

"I'm telling you dudes it's a classic capture and replace scheme, I've seen it done a million times before in movies and comic books. The aliens silently invade earth, quietly abduct and replace 51% of the population; and then once that's complete… BAM! Total annihilation!" Mikey theorized, in the last few years his obsession with his comics has only grown due to the fact that Justin's around and so he has an excuse for being so into the stuff.

"Would you knock it off?" Raph asked as he lightly hit his little brother on the back of the head.

"I don't know Raph, I don't normally agree with Mikey and his insane comic book theories but what else could they be doing?" Leo asked, Raph just rolled his eyes but soon found that he didn't have answer.

"I don't know but I do know that dumb as the Kraang are, they're smart enough to not steal their plans out of old movies." He decided on

"I don't know Raph, after thousands of years the Kraang must be getting pretty desperate." Donnie said

"Ugh, at what point did we enter a world where everyone agrees with Mikey?" The hothead asked

"Oh! Remember about five years ago when we went to dimension X?" The youngest turtle offered.

"It was a rhetorical question." Raph seethed

"Hey why don't you two go back to guarding the door like you're supposed to?" Donnie suggested harshly, getting more and more fed up with his brothers by the minute.

"Donnie's right guys," Leo agreed.

"Aw come on, we've been in here for twenty minutes and no one's noticed. Those things are getting dumber." Raph commented and of course, just then, an alarm started blaring.

"You just had to say something!" Donnie snapped and his brothers prepared themselves for a fight.

"Hurry up with that computer Donnie!" Leo shouted

"Working on it!" Donnie shouted back.

While Leo, Raph, and Mikey all stood in the way of the door with their weapons at the ready and Donnie did his best to hack through the Kraang's mainframe, Raph noticed something out of the ordinary.

"Uh, shouldn't some Kraang have burst in here by now?" He asked, the alarm was still going off loud as ever, but not a single robot had opened the door in an attempt to get rid of the building of it's intruders.

"Maybe they got lost," Mikey suggested.

"Wait, do you guys hear that?" Leo questioned

"All I hear is that stupid siren," Raph commented but Leo shook his head.

"Not that, I think I hear fighting." The leader said and the others went silent, listening past the alarm for anything, and they heard it.

"Someone else is trying to take down the Kraang?" Mikey asked in amazement.

"Well what are we standing here for?" Raph demanded to know, "Let's go help 'em!"

"Not so fast, first we complete our mission." Leo instructed

"I'm in!" Donnie's voice finally cut through, the sound of him quickly typing away on the 'keyboard' filled the room (though it couldn't really be heard over the alarm) until he gasped. "I don't believe this!" He said, "There's nothing here!" He exclaimed.

"What?" Leo demanded

"There is NOTHING here!" The genius repeated, "Nothing we didn't know already anyway!" He continued

"Alright then, in that case, let's see who the Kraang are dealing with." Leo decided and with that they opened the door and rushed into the hall.

None of the turtles really had any idea who it was that was out there, but that aside they were still surprised when maybe they shouldn't have been when they saw who was fighting the battle out in the hallway.

"The Mighty Mutanimals?" Mikey questioned

"What the heck is going on here?" Raph added as he watched their friends finish taking out the robots that had responded to the alarm.

* * *

Casey, Karai, and Justin of course, went down to the lair the next afternoon to see how the TCRI mission went; they hadn't exactly expected to find the guys with company.

"Hey it's the Mutanimals!" Casey exclaimed in delight when he saw the group

"Casey, good to see you." Slash greeted, giving his human friend a handshake.

Karai gave Slash a wave as she attempted to draw Justin out from where he was hiding behind her, they hadn't seen the Mutanimals in a little over a year, and Justin hadn't seen them since they helped his Uncles take back New York.

"Well looks like I've missed a lot," Slash said to Casey once he caught sight of Karai.

"LOOK OUT!" Pigeon Pete's voice came screeching just as he came barreling into the room, airborne, with Madeline screaming just as loudly from her position on his back.

The two of them went down in a crash right into the pinball machine, and despite Madeline being the one in tears it was Pigeon Pete who looked like he had taken most of the impact.

"I guess I'm not fit for passengers," Pete's dazed voice slurred as his leader and the group of humans hurried over to the commotion he had caused.

Without hesitation, and ignoring a glare from Casey, Karai lifted Madeline from the ground and into her arms; hurrying away with the crying girl as Slash grabbed Pete by one arm and yanked him to his feet, demanding to know what is the matter with him.

"What happened?" Irma questioned, running in from the kitchen with Mikey hot on her tail at the sound of the crash.

"Pigeon Pete decided to give her a flying piggyback, they crashed." Karai explained as she handed the wailing child in her arms over to Irma.

Irma, however, had not expected to be handed the screaming girl and just barely managed to keep a grip on her as she was quickly transferred to her arms. For a second or two she just stared down at the girl, who had her head laid against her chest as she sobbed.

"Well what do you want me to do?" She asked Karai in a panic

"I don't know; you're the one who's been taking care of her!" Karai responded

"She's never gotten hurt before!" Irma continued to panic

"She's six and she's been in the lair, awake, for two days. I highly doubt she hasn't gotten hurt." Karai said

"Nothing bad, just help me!" Irma practically begged

"Alright, alright." Karai conceded, she then tried to take Madeline back but the little girl wound her arms tightly around Irma's neck in response.

"No! No!" She cried

"Madeline, please! Go to Karai!" Irma strained to say through the lack of oxygen the young girl was causing.

"No!" She continued to wail, Irma and Karai then proceeded to have a silent argument of facial expressions and mouthed words, the only exception being a few grunts here and there, before Irma finally admitted defeat with a roll of her eyes.

"Fine just help me!" She whispered to Karai through gritted teeth, though Madeline seemed to completely miss it.

"Ask her where it hurts," Karai quietly instructed

For a minute or two Irma looked at the Kunoichi as if she were insane, but then she realized that she had no other option.

"Where, where does it hurt?" She awkwardly questioned the crying girl in her arms.

"My, my head." Madeline wailed; Irma looked to Karai for her next move.

But Karai just cocked her head with an encouraging glance, like she was sure that Irma already knew what to do. But Irma had no idea what to do and continued to look helpless. Finally Karai rolled her eyes and accepted that her friend did in fact need some help.

"Give her a kiss and tell her she's ok," she said and if Irma thought her friend was crazy before she thought she was certifiably insane now. Of course she didn't think the idea of kissing the little girl's boo-boo better was crazy; that made perfect sense. But the idea that SHE would do it and have it actually work, yeah that was crazy.

However the incessant crying in her ear prompted her to reconsider and before she knew it she found herself giving Madeline's head a small kiss as she gently rocked her where they stood, moving one hand to cradle the back of the little girl's head.

"You're ok, come on it's not bleeding. You're ok," she said softly.

With a satisfied smirk Karai walked past Irma and into the lab where most of the others were gathered.

"What was that crash?" Leo questioned his sister upon seeing her enter the room.

"Pigeon Pete, don't ask." She answered and although he could still hear the sound of Madeline crying he took Karai's advice and didn't ask. "So what brings you guys around?" Karai asked Leatherhead

"Kurtzman alerted us that he had found something unusual with the Kraang." The giant alligator informed the group.

"Unusual for the Kraang? That isn't good," Raph put in.

"Indeed, they were working on new exoskins, ones that looked different from each other and more lifelike. The skins were being worn by the robots during yesterday's attack." Leatherhead continued

"Wait those were Kraang?" Donnie questioned, that didn't make sense.

"Yes, that's how I was able to disrupt their psychic link." Dr. Rockwell explained

"Ok but the Angel, Madeline and the Damian were clones," Karai said, almost 90% sure of the fact.

"Who?" Dr. Rockwell questioned

"Friends of ours who were kidnapped and cloned by the Kraang," Donnie explained

"If the other prisoners were robots, as little sense as that makes, it would explain how they got away so fast when we rescued them." Raph offered

"Yeah but why would the Kraang create special exoskins and then imprison the robots wearing them?" Leo asked

"Maybe they were Utroms," Mikey offered

"That still doesn't explain the upgraded exoskins, or why they took Damian, Angel and Madeline for that matter." Donnie pointed out with a shake of his head.

"But it does explain how Irma and Angel were able to hear Madeline from five cells away, and why we haven't seen any news reports of the people on that list ending up in the hospital; they aren't real." Leo said and the others had to agree with that.

"It's almost like the Kraang only wanted it to look like they were creating a clone army." Donnie theorized

"Before the Kraang realized I was interfering with their psychic link I was able to pick up on something, they were keeping their eyes peeled for you during yesterday's fight." Rockwell offered, hoping that the information would somehow be useful.

"That's nothing new," Raph said, not thinking the information helpful at all.

"Ok back to the whole thing about only making it LOOK like they were creating an army, if that's true then why take the three people that they did? It's not like they have a connection." Leo said

"I don't know, but remember they did also take Casey, Karai, and Justin so it's possible that they were only at the start of their plan." Donnie offered, though it was clear that he was grasping at straws.

"But that just brings us back to the question of the fake prisoners," Rockwell pointed out but Karai had stopped listening after Leo's comment, and now her eyes were wide with realization.

"They are connected," she said and everyone turned to look at her. "Damian, Angel, and Madeline. They all have one thing in common," she concluded, fear over taking her features.

"And what might that be?" Raph asked skeptically, failing to see how a twenty-two year old computer consultant could possibly be connected with a fourteen-year-old gang member and a typical first grader.

"Justin," Karai said quietly, almost whispered it, as if she couldn't believe what she was saying.

The others all stared at her for a minute; at first thinking she was just being paranoid. But slowly, one by one, they all began to believe her theory. There isn't a connection between the three actual prisoners the Kraang took, except for the fact that they all have contact with a certain little boy.

"Apart from using him as bait, why would the Kraang target your son?" Rockwell questioned

"Well… Justin wasn't exactly born." Donnie confessed, causing Rockwell to look at him in confusion. "He was more of a experiment made by the Kraang using Karai and Casey's DNA." The purple-banded turtle continued to explain.

"So what? After four years they want him back?" Raph questioned

"I can't see why, I thoroughly tested his DNA when we first brought him home. It's 100% human, there is no trace of his previously mutated strands." The genius turtle continued.

"Would you mind testing him again just in case?" Karai asked

"Of course not," Donnie answered, he probably would've suggested it if Karai didn't.

"Great, just let me know when you want to do it." Karai said, knowing that while Justin was perfectly capable of being brave for Madeline, him being the one to receive the check-up from Donnie might be another story.

* * *

Well she wasn't wrong. About an hour later Karai found herself quite literally dragging her son into the lab until Casey became fed up with the battle and scooped the boy up, carrying him into the lab over his shoulder.

"Well, that's one way to get him in here." Donnie remarked as Casey set the boy down on the medical bed and held him there.

"Justin come on, Uncle Donnie is just going to take a little bit of blood from your finger. It's not going to hurt." He said but Justin continued to squirm in his grasp.

"Yes it is!" He cried

"Justin just look away, you'll barely even know he's doing it." Casey continued to argue as Donnie prepared the finger prick and slide for the blood.

"Come on Justin, it won't be that bad and when it's over you can go back to playing with Madeline." He said, pulling up a stool beside the bed.

Justin still looked very uneasy about the whole thing, but he allowed his Uncle to take his hand and wipe it with rubbing alcohol before pricking his finger. As Donnie pricked his finger he kept his eyes squeezed shut.

"Good job," Donnie praised his nephew when it was over and he gave him one of the children's Band-Aids that he normally saves for Mikey.

"Can I go now?" Justin asked and Donnie nodded, and so as his nephew hoped down and hurried out of the lab he began examining the blood sample.

"This could take a little while, I'll call you guys in when I have something." He said to Casey and Karai as he began his work.

The two of them nodded and exited the lab, and while Casey headed for the kitchen Karai headed for the exit to the lair.  
"Where are you going?" Casey asked

"Just to take a walk," she answered, she could feel the look of skepticism Casey was giving behind her back and she was grateful that he didn't say anything out loud. "Don't worry, I'm not going far." She sighed and although Casey was still a little unsure about the idea she heard him walking away, knowing it best to let her go.

* * *

Karai walked for a little under ten minutes, until she came to a place in the old abandon subway tunnels so old that the floor was still dirt. They had chosen this spot on purpose, not because it was special, but because A: the ground was still earth and B: it was very unlikely that anyone would ever disturb it. Stopping in front of the homemade gravestone Donnie had worked so hard on Karai squatted down to be eye level with it.

"I know, I know. I should've told at least one person I was coming to see you. But Casey knows I'm here, he's not always the brightest bulb in the room but he's smart enough to figure out where I am." She said to her father, or the stone that marked his body that is. "Anyway I've got good news and bad news." She began, "the good news is Casey and I are having another baby, but if you can see me right now then I guess you've probably already figured that out." She said that part with a slight laugh. "And we're getting married. But the bad news is that the Kraang may or may not be after Justin, if they're not then that means we don't know what their plan is, and on top of all that I'm just turning into a wreck." She confessed, it's times like this when she wishes her father were still here, when she wishes they could've stopped Shredder from stabbing him.

She hates thinking about it, hates thinking about how they couldn't save him. They could save the world, but they couldn't save him.

* * *

"Where's Karai?" Donnie asked as his brother's and Casey all gathered in the lab.

"She went for a walk," Casey responded, not particularly fond of the judgmental stares he was now receiving. "What? She needed to clear her head, besides she's pregnant not incapacitated." He claimed and so the other four let it go and moved on with their business, opting to fill their sister in later.

"So I triple checked Justin's DNA but there isn't even a microscopic trace of mutagen in it." Donnie announced.

"Then what do the Kraang need him for?" Casey questioned

"I don't know Casey," Donnie said solemnly

"But whatever it is, we'll protect him." Leo said

"Yeah, no one's going to get to him." Mikey agreed and at that Casey smiled

"Thanks guys," he said, for now that was the plan, despite how little of one it was.

But little did the guys know that when the true plan eventually does come to light; it'll be enough to fuel their nightmares for weeks.


	15. Old Wounds

"Ok I know I've been away for awhile but isn't that normal?" Casey heard Irma asking as he walked out of the lab.

She was sitting on the couch talking to April, who had apparently stopped over while they were all discussing Donnie's findings.

"For most people, but Karai would never go for it." April argued, effectively grabbing Casey's attention and getting him over to the couch.

"What are you guys talking about?" He questioned the girls

"Irma wanted to know if Karai is having a baby shower, I told her probably not." April answered her friend

"People do still have baby showers don't they?" Irma questioned

"Yes but it's usually only for the first kid, and regardless of the fact that Justin was created in a lab he is still our son. So this is our second kid," Casey pointed out, although for the record just about everyone Karai even would invite to a baby shower knows the truth about Justin, save for maybe one or two people, so it probably wouldn't matter.

"Yeah but from what I've heard it doesn't sound like you guys had any baby stuff for Justin." Irma said and Casey couldn't argue that, not that it was entirely their fault Justin didn't have a lot of baby stuff.

"True but Karai doesn't exactly like being the center of attention," April pointed out.

"No, she doesn't like admitting that she doesn't hate being the center of attention." Casey interjected before realizing that may not be much different than what April meant. "Look, she hasn't mentioned anything to me about a baby shower but talk to her. I think it could do her some good, she's been really bummed out lately." He said

"Really? I talk to her all the time and she seems fine." Irma said

"Karai's really good at hiding that stuff," April said, knowing full well that unless Karai wanted someone to know something's bothering her, you're probably not going to notice.

"What is Karai hiding?" An accusing voice came from the entrance, the three adults turned to see Karai walking in, waiting for an answer to her question.

"Nothing," Casey said before remembering something that could get them out of this situation. "Donnie needs to talk to you, about Justin." He said and so with a nod Karai began to head for the lab, but as she walked past him he stopped her.

"Karai," he said, "relax," he told her and she nodded, suddenly more confident in what she was walking into thanks to the reassurance that Donnie most likely wasn't about to tell her that the Kraang would ever be able to turn her son back into the possibly mindless monster he was created as.

* * *

"So you used to be like your Uncles?" Madeline questioned, she and Justin were playing in Mikey's room but they got board and Madeline began asking about how mutants become what they are, which Justin answered two ways.

"No, I wasn't a turtle. Mommy says I looked like a really big octopus who made kitty noises." He explained and Madeline couldn't help it when she began laughing. "What?" Justin asked, admittedly laughing a little himself.

"You were really silly," Madeline said through her fit of giggles.

"No I wasn't!" Justin defended, suddenly a little offended by his friend's words.

"Yes you were, you were a meowing octopus!" Madeline continued to laugh and much as Justin wanted to remain angry he couldn't, because now he was picturing such a creature and it was really funny.

He had been really afraid to tell Madeline about what he was at first, because his parents had made him swear his whole life that he would never tell anyone. But he figured that since Madeline already knows about everything else, what's the harm?

* * *

"I don't get it," Karai said later that night, walking back into her and Casey's bedroom from the bathroom where she found Casey climbing into bed. "Since when are the Kraang this smart?" She continued, after hearing what Donnie had to say and how it didn't offer any answers she couldn't believe that those pesky little aliens have suddenly decided to become experts in covering their tracks.

"I don't know," Casey sighed right before Karai climbed into bed and sat down beside him. "Kid bugging you today?" He asked, remembering how she said yesterday it was moving all day and drove her crazy.

"No, I think it wore itself out yesterday." She answered, today she had felt the baby kicking her once or twice and it moved for a few minutes, but over all it had spent the day laying still. Actually this had worried her a little bit at first, but after reading in Casey's copy of _What to Expect When You're Expecting_ (the one he hides under the bed because he won't admit to having it.) She relaxed because apparently that's normal for the baby to move a lot one day and not so much the next.

"So," Casey said and Karai instantly knew he was changing the topic, "April and Irma were wondering today if you were planning on having a baby shower." He mentioned

"I don't know," Karai answered. "I mean it's a good idea but I don't exactly have a lot friends." She tried to excuse but Casey wouldn't let her get away with it.

"What do you mean you don't have friends?" He accused

"I have April, Irma, and Mickey." She deadpanned her answer, listing off every female friend she has.

"What about Angel, or that other woman who works at the dojo?" Casey questioned

"She'd ask why I was even having a baby shower because you're only supposed to do it for the first kid, and I would invite Angel, sorry I left her out." Karai answered but Casey only shrugged, not really seeing a problem.

"So? Who cares what one lady from work thinks? Besides if it's that big a deal just tell her the truth and that you don't have any of Justin's baby things anymore." He suggested; Karai only rolled her eyes in response, knowing she would have to reason that which she really couldn't.

"Whatever, I actually wanted to talk to you about us getting married." She said, changing the topic.

"Hey I told you I got a ring, I sent it to the engraving place and I'm picking it up on Tuesday!" Casey immediately defended, Karai hadn't yet asked him about getting her a ring but he was sure she would eventually.

"Not that," she said dismissively, "I meant actually getting married." She clarified, Casey blinked in confusion.

"I thought you said you wanted to wait until after you have the baby?" He asked, recalling their conversation last month.

"I did, and if we still want to wait I have nothing against it. But I was just thinking that it's kind of pointless to have a wedding and maybe we should just go down to city hall and sign the papers?" She asked more than suggested, leaving Casey in a little bit of surprise.

He didn't think it a bad idea, though maybe not her BEST idea. To be honest it would be a lot less of a hassle, but what did she mean it's pointless to have a wedding?

"Are you sure you don't want to have an actual wedding?" He finally asked; she only shrugged.

"I'm not saying we shouldn't have some sort of party, I'm just saying that my family wouldn't be able to come and you only have three people in your family, and I can't think of anyone we would invite who doesn't know about the lair and my brothers. Plus it's not like we have any money for a big wedding anyway, so why not just go sign the papers and then have a little party here afterwards?" She suggested and the more Casey thought about it, the more he actually liked the idea.

"Actually, that sounds like a really good plan. I don't care when we go down and sign the papers but we're waiting until after the baby gets here to have a party, at least two months after." He said the last part sternly, yes Karai knows her limits but by that time he just knows that she might let her lack of patients get the best of her and try to do something she shouldn't.

"You really have no faith in me at all do you Jones?" Karai asked with a smirk, in response Casey pulled her closer to him and kissed her on the head.

* * *

Madeline awoke with a scream. She was sleeping on the couch in the lair and for a second or two upon first waking up she didn't recognize where she was, which only encouraged the tears that were running down her face. Once it came back to her she sprung up from the couch and raced down the hall to Karai's old bedroom where Irma was sleeping. With tears in her eyes she threw open the door and climbed into the bed as she sobbed.

As for Irma, one minute she was sound asleep and the next she was awake due to the door crashing open and something throwing itself onto the mattress with her. With a startled yelp she barely managed to register what, or rather who, was in her bed before the little girl began climbing on her like a squirrel who had just fallen out of it's tree.

"Madeline! Madeline calm down!" She all but shouted as she tried to restrain the child's limbs. Madeline kept crying hysterically until Irma was quite literally holding her arms pinned against her sides and all but glaring down at her. Even then she was still wailing and, as if to make things worse, that was when Leo appeared in the open door.

"Is everything?.." He began but the question seemed to die on his lips.

"Just give us a minute," Irma said, with a nod Leo closed the door and, hopefully, returned to his own room. Once the door was closed and thus coating them in darkness Madeline let out a shriek, so Irma got up and turned the light on. "Now, what is your deal?" She asked as she made her way back over to the bed, her eyes adjusting to the light as she put on her new glasses.

"I, I had a bad, a bad dream." Madeline answered, her words coming out in hiccups.

"Ok…" Irma drawled out, unsure of what exactly she was supposed to do about that. But Madeline just stayed kneeling on the bed; her tears now coming out in high pitched sniffles. "What was the dream about?" She finally asked

"It was, it was, it was, the, the, mu, the mu, the mutant who kid, kid, kidnapped meeee!" Madeline sobbed before breaking into full on tears yet again.

"Shh, shh, wait. It was a mutant who kidnapped you?" Irma questioned as she tried to quiet the girl.

"Mhm," Madeline whimpered, "I think it was a mutant. When it happened I just thought he was a, a monster." She continued as her tears started to calm.

"What did it look like?" Irma questioned, since being here she'd heard about some of the mutants who are less than friendly.

"He looked like a giant skeleton, a wolf skeleton." Madeline shuddered at the memory.

Irma looked at her quizzically, momentarily thinking that she could be exaggerating. But then she remembered one mutant that Mikey had told her about, Rahzar, and how he had described him as resembling a zombie dog. She considered going out right now and telling Leo about this, but Madeline was still sniveling like a baby.

"Alright, calm down. It's over now, it was just a dream." She said and Madeline nodded.

"Irma?" She asked timidly, "can I sleep in here with you?" She squeaked out and despite how unsure Irma was if she could handle that, one look at Madeline's face and she knew that unlike her who needed time to herself, the little girl couldn't handle anymore solitude and especially not late at night in the dark.

"Sure," She gave in and through the tears a bright smile lit up Madeline's face, causing Irma to smile just a little bit too. She then got up and turned the light back off, and couldn't help but snicker to herself in amusement when she heard Madeline give a frightened squeak. "Relax, there's nothing to be afraid of." She assured Madeline as she climbed back into the bed, tensing slightly when Madeline immediately snuggled herself right up against her.

As Irma lay there awake, Madeline already having drifted off into sleep, Karai's words from the other day kept repeating over and over again in her head.

 _Sooner or later you can hand her back to where she came from,_ and she sighed because she knew how true those words are. She'd lost her dad at the age of eleven, and her mom was never exactly the parenting type. She wasn't abusive, just neglectful. Of course by the age of eleven Irma had been pretty self-sufficient anyway, but a few too many solo visits to the food pantry and wearing the same three dirty outfits to school every day apparently had gotten someone concerned. Now make no mistake, she loves her mother but she had been more scared than upset when she was taken away and put into foster care, she had been old enough to understand what was happening.

But because of the foster system she'd been here before. She'd hugged a little girl until she fell asleep, she'd quelled nightmares and fears, and she'd kissed boo boos all better. It always ends the same way: every, single, time. She looks out for someone, she becomes friends with someone, and then either they leave or she does. No one ever stays in her life for very long, and that's what this is doomed to. Madeline has a family, right now she's away from her family and that's why she needs her. But once this is all over she'll go back to her family and Irma will be nothing but an easily forgotten memory to the little girl.

* * *

"Rahzar?!" Leo asked in alarm the next morning when Irma caught him before any of the others were awake.

"She described the mutant as a giant wolf skeleton." Irma confirmed

"But… but we haven't seen him in years!" The leader exclaimed, they hadn't seen a single sign of the Foot clan since Splinter's death, save for Tiger Claw but supposedly his contract with them had ended.

"Well then either he's back or she's crazy," Irma said, then she noticed Leo seemed to be leaning more towards the idea of Rahzar is back. "Leo she's six, it could've just been her mind over exaggerating what she saw." She said but the look Leo gave her was far from convinced.

"Then what did she see?" He asked, "What could she have possibly seen other than Rahzar that her mind would've exaggerated into that?" He demanded but Irma couldn't respond, she had no response.

* * *

"Mom guess what! Guess what!" Justin said excitedly as he came out school later on that day.

"What?" Karai asked in amusement, taking her son's backpack from him like she did every day.

"Madeline's clo- uh, you know who, wasn't in school today." He said, cutting himself off due to the realization that he probably shouldn't mention the whole clone thing out in public.

"Really?" Karai asked, slightly intrigued by the news.

"Yeah, does that mean she can go home?" Justin asked and Karai stared at him blankly for a moment or two, not really having an answer.

"Justin we don't really know what the whole situation is with the clones right now, but I'll talk to Uncle Leo about it and see what he says." She finally told him, he understands that Leo is the leader of the team and everything, and so choices like this are his decision.

"Ok," Justin agreed, they walked a few more moments in silence before he spoke up again. "Is the baby still kicking you a lot?" He asked and Karai couldn't help but laugh.

"Not as much as the other night, I think it listened to you and decided not to do it so hard." She said and Justin beamed in delight.

"When do you find out if it's a boy or a girl?" He questioned and Karai smirked.

"What's with you?" She asked playfully, "when we first told you about the baby you were so upset you tried to run away. Now you're more excited than anyone." She continued but Justin simply shrugged, his face coated with just a little bit of embarrassment. "I think we're going to wait until it's born to find out," she finally answered and Justin nodded, accepting the answer.

"Where's it going to sleep?" He asked, Karai sighed as she tried to think of an answer, this was a question she had been trying to avoid. She and Casey hadn't really talked about it yet, but they each knew that they wouldn't be able to afford a bigger apartment for a few more years; and so sooner or later they were going to have to tell Justin the only plan they had for this.

"Well at first it's going to sleep in mine and dad's room," she answered, "but after about a month we were hoping you'd be open to the idea of sharing your room." She continued and in all fairness that went better well received than she had expected, though her expectations were pretty low.

"Do I have to?" Justin whined

 _Yeah you kind of do,_ Karai thought to herself. "Justin…" she drawled out

"But it's my room!" He continued to whine

"I know but we don't have another bedroom," She reminded him

"That's not my fault!" Justin all but shouted

"Justin I'm not kicking you out of your room, I am asking you to share it." She continued, growing more and more frustrated by the minute.

"I know and I don't want to share it!" He continued to whine as he and his mother entered an alleyway.

"Well you don't really have a choice!" Karai shouted back whilst kicking up the manhole cover, making sure Justin got in first so she could close the entrance behind them. Entering the sewers, more specifically climbing down the ladder, while pregnant was something Karai was sure without a doubt she should not be doing; but it was something unavoidable.

"That's not fair! It's my room and you said I had a choice before!" Justin all but screamed.

"I did not!" Karai snapped back, and as if to make matters worse she now had two kids angry with her because due to the fact that she couldn't lean back far enough while still maintaining her balance she had hit her stomach against more than a few of the iron rungs, not hard but enough to make the child inside of her kick with annoyance.

"Mom. It's. My. Room!" Justin continued to shout, tears of anger now pricking at the corners of his eyes.

"I. Don't. Care." Karai seethed, her voice now much calmer than it had been.

As Justin stood there with his fists balling and his face turning red he honestly looked as though he was going to explode, and boy did he.

"I hate you!" He screamed before running away, taking off towards the lair.

Karai just let him go, unsure of what to do. Justin had said he hates her before, she knows how to handle that. But this time was different; he hadn't been talking to her, because when he spoke he had been looking right at her belly.

* * *

"Justin? Where's your mom?" Leo questioned when he was sitting on the couch and all of a sudden he heard crying behind him. He then became even more confused when Justin ran past him and there was no sign of Karai behind him.

But Justin didn't answer; instead he just ran straight into a closet and locked himself in. Leo almost went after him, but instead decided to head to the entrance and poke his head out.

"Karai?" He called

"Right here," his sister's voice answered back. Leo turned his head to see Karai coming from the direction opposite where he was looking.

"Figured you'd get on my case if I tried running after Justin," she said and Leo smiled in amusement.

"You're not wrong," he said, "so what's up with Justin? He ran through the lair crying and locked himself in a closet." He inquired and Karai rolled her eyes.

"Don't ask," She answered, "So why did I have to come down here?"

* * *

Meanwhile, Raph had spilt some water in the kitchen and so he went looking for paper towels, nearly jumping back with a heart attack when he opened the closet and found his nephew curled up on the floor inside.

"Justin?" He asked and the boy sniffled in response, had he been crying? "What are you doing in there?" He continued to ask but Justin only looked up at him with an expression of guilt. "Ok buddy, come here." The red-banded turtle said before bending over and lifting Justin up into his arms. He carried him down to his bedroom where he shut the door as they entered and then sat down on the bed with Justin on his lap. "So again, why were you in the closet?" He asked

"Mom and Dad are going to make me share my room with the new baby." He pouted and Raph sighed, he'd have to be REALLY careful with this one.

"That's rough buddy," he admitted. "Look, I'm sorry if I scared you with all that talk about how annoying being a big brother is-" he began but Justin cut him off.

"But you're right," he said and Raph sighed.

"But I only told you half the story," he said and Justin blinked in confusion. "You see; everything I said about being a big brother is true. You should set an example, and sometimes that means giving in when you don't want to. But it also means having a best friend for the rest of your life. I know that sounds like a lie but… it's not. There are days where you're going to hate each other and there are days where you're only going to want to be near each other. You see Justin a little brother or sister is going to think you can do anything; they're going to look at you and see a superhero. I know sometimes it doesn't seem fair for you to give up things for a person you didn't even ask to have in your life but sooner or later everything in the world evens out, and you'll see that one way or another you get as much as you've given." He explained, a part of him wondering what deep crevasse of his mind that had come from, but every word of it was true.

* * *

"You don't seem all that surprised." Leo said, slightly stunned, after he had brought Karai into the dojo where Irma was waiting for them. Irma explained what Madeline claimed to have happened upon her kidnapping and Karai didn't respond with much more than a scowl.

"I wish I was," she said, "Shredder needs to hate somebody, it's how he functions. Looks like after all these years he's finally settled on me," she said darkly.

"Whoa hang on, no one said anything about Shredder. Maybe Rahzar is on his own." Leo suggested, not that he more than half believed it.

"When I was in that dungeon Shredder promised that I would watch Justin die, that's why the Kraang were after him." Karai argued with a shake of her head.

"Karai, calm down." Leo pleaded, Karai wasn't shouting or rambling or anything like that, but he knows her and he knows that deep inside she was starting to get scared.

"I am calm," she said in a steady voice.

"You're jumping to conclusions. It's been five years, I doubt that Shredder and the Kraang are even working together anymore." He argued

"Well then what answer do you have?" She asked and Leo sighed.

"I don't. But if, IF, Shredder is somehow involved in all this we need to make sure he doesn't find out you're about to have another baby." He said but Karai shook her head.

"That scanner picked it up, if he's involved then he already knows." She said

"Which gives us a heads up," Irma said, speaking up for the first time since explaining what Madeline had told her.

"How do you figure?" Leo asked, he and Karai looking at their friend in confusion, not following whatever she was thinking.

"If that scanner could pick up you being pregnant at all it should be able to tell how pregnant you were. From that Shredder will be able to calculate when you're due, and considering he hasn't attacked yet we can assume he's waiting for when you're most vulnerable and can't fight back." She explained.

"So he's going to go after her when she's in labor?" Leo questioned, looking slightly horrified.

"Doubt it," Irma said with a shake of her head. "He wants her to watch Justin die, odds are he's going to break into her apartment one night when she's eight months pregnant." She theorized, Leo and Karai exchanged glances.

"He won't get them," Leo promised, all three of them knew that Shredder wouldn't stop with Justin.

"The only question left is what's in it for the Kraang?" Irma added, seeming to be lost in her own world of thought.

"We are so dead," Karai said to Leo.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Hey guys! Sorry this chapter took so long, i've had a lot going on and i was really stumped on some parts. But it's up now so i can relax! Also thanks so much for the reviews you've been leaving, they really make my day! Hope you like the rest of the story, because a lot is about to happen.**


	16. Mended Bonds and Broken Bones

The baby shower argument ended with Irma and April throwing a surprise baby shower, it was small but it was nice. Justin also agreed, eventually, to share his room with the baby, which solved that problem. It was only a few days after all that was decided that Karai went and found another way down to the sewer, an old gated entrance that didn't involve trying to fit down a hole in the ground, because she knew that wasn't going to last much longer. She was now nearing her sixth month of pregnancy and despite her natural hatred of naps, a quality she shares with Casey so god knows why Justin was so easy to get to sleep as a baby, sleep is something that's becoming more and more rare for her with each passing night so when she started to fall asleep on the couch while the others were training she didn't even fight to stay awake.

* * *

He slipped. Of all the stupid and ridiculous things to do during a spar Mikey had slipped. This resulted in a punch from Raph probably meant for him to block landing on his jaw just seconds before the back of his head collided with the dojo floor. Leo had told him to take five and get some ice.

"I mean come on! How stupid can I be?" The youngest turtle complained to himself as he exited the dojo, but he paused when he caught the sight of his sister asleep on the couch out of the corner of his eye.

With his pain forgotten he tiptoed over to her to see if she was actually asleep or not, because he has never known Karai to take a nap. But to his surprise she was asleep.

"Karai?" He whispered just to make sure, she gave no indication that she'd heard him.

Crouching down in front of her Mikey took a look at her sleeping face, he'd never actually seen her so peaceful before. But with her eyes closed Mikey realized that it was really the first time she didn't look guarded. Subconsciously his eyes trailed down to her bulging abdomen. Her shirt was riding up just a little, just enough to expose a sliver of her skin. Sometimes he forgot that it was still covered in scars beneath her clothes, but right now that isn't what he was thinking about. She had said that the baby kicks her, and he's seen Casey feeling her stomach like he could feel the baby, and well his curiosity got the best of him. Gently he placed his hands against her stomach, cautiously watching her face to make sure she didn't wake. When she didn't he figured she must be out cold and relaxed a little, but he didn't feel anything.

"Hey little guy, are you awake in there?" He asked in a whisper of a voice but he still didn't feel anything. "Guess not, well ok then I'll let you sleep." He said, dragging his hand slightly as he took it back. But just as he did he saw, actually saw, something move.

It was like this when you move your foot while under a blanket, how you can see the general shape of it until you stop moving and let the blanket hide it again. That's the only thing in which Mikey could compare this to, but unlike the simple action of moving your own foot around under a blanket this scared him, and he jumped back with a frightened shout. This resulted in Karai waking up with a shout that matched Mikey's, before she realized it was only her youngest brother who had screamed.

"Mikey," she said in annoyance, "what are you doing?" She questioned as she sat up, adjusting her shirt when she noticed that while she was asleep it had at some point begun riding up.

"Dude, the baby totally moved!" He exclaimed, pointing at her as she got up and stood over him.

"Yeah, it does that." She said, holding out a hand to help her brother up while looking at him as if he had lost his mind. He knew before that the baby moves, so she couldn't for the life of her understand what had him so freaked out.

"No I mean I could see it!" Mikey continued to panic as Karai pulled him to his feet.

"Your point?" She questioned, now it was Mikey's turn to look at her as though she had lost her mind.

"Wait? That's supposed to happen?!" He questioned

"Yeah, I thought you knew that?" Karai asked

"No! Why would I know that?!" The orange clad turtle demanded but Karai only shrugged.

"I don't know, you knew you were supposed to be able to feel it from the outside. I thought you would've just assumed." She explained

"Well I didn't!" He all but shouted back, still a very freaked out by what he had just witnessed. "How do you sleep through that?" He questioned, if what he had just seen was as painful as it looked then he'd never be able to sleep through it; and Karai's always been a lighter sleeper than him.

"Not easily," she admitted with a smirk, slightly entertained by how shocked by this Mikey was.

* * *

After the little fake out with the clones where Rockwell discovered them the Kraang had apparently decided that they didn't need the clones replacing those who could potentially get Justin for Shredder. They must have been called back, because Madeline's clone never went back to school and it wasn't long before she was reported as a missing child. So after determining that it was all clear Mickey and Damian returned to the city and resumed their lives, and today Irma had ventured up to the surface to bring Madeline home.

"Now remember you can't tell anyone, not even your parents, about the last few weeks." She reminded the little girl for hundredth and probably final time as the two of them climbed the stairs to her apartment.

"I know, I know." Madeline said, as far as her family is concerned she's only been missing a week and so the story they would hear is that last week a man took her, he was already holding Irma, and they just now escaped together.

Just then they arrived at what Madeline said was the right door and Irma looked down at her.

"Are you ready?" She asked and Madeline nodded, so Irma reached out her hand and knocked.

It took a minute, but soon a woman who looked to be in her early or mid thirties with short brown hair answered the door. She noticed Irma at first, but then her eyes fell on her daughter.

"Maddie!" She gasped, getting down and taking her very eager daughter in her arms, the cries of a baby in the living room of the apartment going unnoticed. "Oh my baby, are you ok?" The woman asked through tears as she kissed her daughter and then pulled away to look at her.

"I'm fine," Madeline said

"Are you sure?" Her mother asked again and Madeline nodded.

"Mhm," she said before looking past her mother and finally noticing her one-year-old brother in the living room. "Hayden!" She squealed, running past her mom to go and greet her brother.

During all this Irma had been standing awkwardly in the doorway, and now that Madeline was distracted her mother finally noticed the young woman.

"Hi," Irma said awkwardly, "I'll get going, I just wanted to make sure someone was here." She explained

"Where was she?" Madeline's mother asked, seemingly still in a state of awe as she stood to be eye-level with the woman in front of her.

"She was, um… I was kidnapped, a while ago. I've been locked up in an underground cell, last week the man who took me… he showed up with her." She explained, partially lying, but Madeline's mother looked horrified. "She wasn't hurt, I can promise you that. We broke out this morning, she told me to bring her here." She continued, yes she was lying about Madeline having not been hurt considering that clone put her in a coma, but her mother couldn't know that. Plus it technically wasn't their kidnapper who hurt her.

"The man! Will he-?"

"No, he won't come back." Irma interrupted

"Oh, good." Mrs. Fitzgerald breathed, finding that notion slightly comforting.

"Anyway I should get going," Irma began, however Madeline evidently heard her as she came rushing back to the doorway.

"When are you coming back?" She questioned.

At first Irma was taken back by the question,

"I don't think I am Madeline," she said, turning Madeline's face into a frown instantly.

"What?" She all but cried.

"Madeline you're home now," Irma reminded her.

"So?" Madeline whined, "I don't want you to go!" She continued, this time throwing her arms around her friend's waist in an attempt to keep her from leaving.

"Madeline," Irma said as she tried to get her to let go, not that she wanted to leave either, but this is the way things are.

Or so she thought anyway.

Mrs. Fitzgerald was sooner pulling her daughter from the older girl, "Madeline your friend can come visit you anytime, but right now she needs to get home to her family." She said soothingly

"But-" Madeline began to protest, no doubt about to tell her mother that Irma doesn't have a family to go back to. But Irma was quick to cut her off, not wanting any sympathy and much too relieved by the knowledge that she could come back to want anything to upset anyone.

"She's right, I'll see you later but right now I have to go." She said before turning to the girl's mother. "Thank you," she said

"Thank you for bringing her home." The older woman said in response.

* * *

"I don't care what you say, the answer is still no." Karai argued a few weeks later as Casey tried to set up the crib. They had sent Justin to the lair for a few hours while they did this, as Karai knew Casey was going to refuse to read the directions and wind up losing his temper, so the last thing he needed was Justin bouncing off the walls all around him.

"Why not?" Casey asked, aside from setting up the crib he was also trying to convince Karai to go take some kind of birthing class but he was getting nowhere with either project.

"Casey I read the books so that I wouldn't need to take one of those classes." She argued, to be honest she found those classes really, really weird. She understood the whole point of it, but she can get the information from a book and would rather not spend her free time sitting on the floor of a rec center pretending she's giving birth before she has to actually do it for real.

"Just think about ok?" Casey asked of her, his way of giving up for the time being.

"Fine," she conceded.

"So I've been thinking, we haven't decided on anything in terms of what to name the kid." Casey said, changing the topic.

Karai thought for a minute, they had barely even talked about this and it's probably something they should figure out soon. Considering the baby will be here in less than three months.

"I don't know, any names you like?" She finally asked and Casey only chuckled.

"You have got to be the least planned ahead girl I have ever met," He commented, knowing that most girls have thought of what they want to name their children before they're seven-years-old.

"With good reason," Karai defended jokingly. "But for the record it isn't like I never thought about it as a kid, it's just nothing ever really stuck." She claimed

"Fair enough, ugh!" Casey said before growling at the crib, or rather pieces of wood the supposedly fit together to form a crib.

"Read the directions," Karai prompted

"Can't, they're in Japanese." He excused and Karai couldn't help but face palm, was he seriously trying THAT?

"Then I'll read them to you," she said, snatching up the instruction sheet (which for the record had English on one side) before Casey could stop her.

"Just put that down, I was looking at the pictures but the parts don't fit like they draw them." He excused; Karai rolled her eyes and didn't let go of the booklet.

"Seriously, are there any names you were thinking of?" She asked but Casey only shrugged.

"I don't know, I was thinking maybe Isabella or something for a girl. Kind of hard to think of something for a boy." He said and Karai nodded, though let the record show she was not a fan of the name Isabella.

"No kidding, I hope it's a boy though." She commented and Casey chuckled.

"Aren't you girl's outnumbered as it is in this family?" He joked but the look on Karai's face shut him up, suddenly she really looked scared. "You alright?" He asked, she nodded but he knows her better than that. So he abandoned the annoying crib for now and stood up, of course she avoided his eyes as he did so. "Karai what's up?" He asked and she gave a sigh.

"I don't know how to raise a daughter," she admitted and Casey looked at her quizzically, so she explained further. "I was raised by a man, the only girls I had in my life were the female members of the Foot Clan and they weren't exactly nice people. Then I went home to my father and my brothers, and then I had a son. I can handle boys; I'm used to dealing with boys. But I don't know how to teach a girl when I never had a mom to teach me." She explained and Casey responded by putting his arms around her, though their growing child was making holding her increasingly difficult to do. Nonetheless he pressed a kiss to the top of her head and began to rub her back.

"Shh," he tried to sooth her. "Look, I don't know much in life, but I do know that if this baby is a girl; you're going to do fine." He whispered to her.

"Casey," she groaned.

"I mean it. You never give yourself enough credit, but I grew up with just my dad and I still have no idea what I'm doing with Justin. It doesn't matter if you had a mom to teach you certain things or if you had to figure them all out for yourself. All that matters is that you're there, and you do your best with them." He said before her looked her in the eyes, "and I know that no matter what happens you're going to do just that."

The two of them were snapped out of the moment right then by a knocking sound coming from their door, and when Casey went to answer it he found his sister standing there.

"Need any help with that crib?" She asked and he raised an eyebrow.

"Are you that desperate to get away from dad?" He asked; he knows that ever since Angel went home she and their father have had some problems getting along.

"You have no idea," she huffed and so Casey let her in and brought her into Justin's bedroom where he had the crib lying as a pile of scrap.

"Geez you do need help," she commented

"Well maybe if he would read the directions," Karai said as she took a seat on Justin's bed, slowly because she couldn't do so quickly anymore. She then held the directions out to Angel, who turned to the English side, and began reading to herself.

"I'm telling you the pictures are inaccurate!" Casey exclaimed in annoyance.

"You deal in pictures, I deal in words. Maybe it'll make sense to me," Angel said as she got down beside her brother, kicking off her shoes and picking up a piece of wood. "Ok so this goes here," she murmured to herself as she picked up another piece and inserted the first piece into a slot on the second one.

* * *

Forty-five minutes later and the Jones siblings had the crib almost completely assembled, Angel was just holding one of the last few pieces in place as Casey hammered it in, and that's where things went wrong. He didn't mean to drop his hammer, obviously, but he did and his sister's reflexes weren't fast enough to avoid the tool coming crashing down on her bare foot.

"AAAHHHH!" She let out a loud and painful shout of pain, trying to fight back the tears.

"Oh man, are you ok?!" Casey panicked as his sister lost control of her tears and began hopping around as she sobbed.

"You just dropped a hammer on her foot, do you think she's ok?" Karai demanded, standing up and so Casey practically threw Angel across the room and onto Justin's bed.

"Alright, alright! Just let me look at it!" He said as Angel started to calm down and hold still. Her foot had what would clearly end up forming a very large bruise and to Casey it looked like it might be broken. "I'm gonna take her to a hospital," He decided before tossing his sister her shoes, she put on her left shoe but she wasn't stupid enough to try putting on the other one.

Understanding that she was only putting on the one shoe Casey helped her up and let her lean on him as he tried to help her out of the room, which was actually pretty funny to watch considering Angel is over a foot shorter than her brother. It didn't take long for Casey to realize that this wasn't going to work and he picked her up and carried her out of the apartment bridal style.

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Raph said an hour later when Karai had come to the lair to pick up Justin, but instead since he was too involved with Mikey teaching him a trading card game, Karai and Raph ended up watching TV. "You asked Casey to put a crib together, to do one simple thing, and he broke his sister's foot?" He continued

"Yup," Karai answered and Raph just shook his head.

"Well, I don't know what to tell ya sis other than you're marrying an idiot." He said sarcastically.

"I know but I have two kids with the guy, or I will soon anyway, doesn't really make much sense to leave him now." She responded and Raph chuckled.

"Fair enough," he agreed.

The two of them sat there in silence watching TV for another few minutes. As they were watching Raph couldn't help but notice Karai rubbing her hand across abdomen, most likely trying to make her child stop kicking. He'd seen the others feeling the baby kick before, and honestly a part of him wondered what that was like. He assumed it must feel really weird, both to Karai and anyone else feeling for it. But she must have noticed him staring, because she turned to him and snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Raph you can feel my belly, it's ok." She encouraged him, he only hoped the stare he was giving her now wasn't as blank and taken back as it felt.

"That's alright, I'm good." He said awkwardly, she just rolled her eyes at him.

"Raph it's not weird," she said, practically reading his mind.

"No offence but it kind of is," he argued

"No it's not Casey and the other's do it all the time, what was weird was the time Mikey did it while I was asleep." She said and Raph just rolled his eyes.

"Karai I understand that it's really not weird, but to me it is. I have my personal bubble, and you have yours, and I'd rather we keep it that way." He said, the two wound up bickering for another two minutes or so before Karai just grabbed Raph's hand and placed it on her stomach over where the baby had been kicking her for the last five minutes or so.

"See, we look like a couple of idiot. So if I could please-" Raph cut himself off, because that was when he felt something tap against his hand.

Karai just smirked, despite how much Raph had fought and argued with her she knew that he was glad he got to feel the baby kick. To be honest, she wouldn't have argued with anyone else over this, but Raph is different. Her and him are a lot alike, not very in touch with their emotions. They don't act on emotion, and so losing the chance to experience something like this she knows he'd regret, but if he could do it over he wouldn't. He has respect for boundaries, and even when he's told to ignore them he doesn't because to him boundaries are safe zones. They're shields, things that prevent him from knowing too much about a person, because if he doesn't know everything he can say the person had secrets if and when they walk out of his life. But right now she could tell he was happy he let that guard down, and so was she.


	17. You Have Got to be Kidding (Part 1)

"You need to calm down," Casey said late one night as he was trying to fall asleep but couldn't due to the fact that he could practically feel the anxiety radiating off his girlfriend next to him.

Ever since they came up with the plan that Shredder might be coming back after Justin the guys had investigated the old Foot headquarters but found nothing. They also did some deeper research into the Kraang but all they could find were some records saying that the clones were being upgraded, so it's probably safe to say they haven't seen the last of those. So during most of Karai's eighth month of pregnancy she and Justin had stayed at the lair, while Casey stayed at the apartment to keep watch for Shredder. But he never came. The entire month passed without a single sign of the deadly ninja, and when school started again during that last week of August they decided that Justin would have to start living at home again. Although Casey tried to keep her at the lair Karai insisted on coming back to the apartment as well since her due date was coming close and she did NOT want to go to the hospital and explain why she smelt like she'd been in the sewer.

"Don't you think I know that?" Karai snapped back at her boyfriend, he doesn't have to remind her that stressing so much isn't good for either her or the baby, but she just can't help it. She's still worried about Shredder coming back, she's worried about whatever it is the Kraang are planning, she's due on September 16th and the clock just passed midnight marking today as September 8th, and because she's been mostly on bed rest the past few days which is not something her body is NOT programed to like she's completely restless. It was actually to the point where her legs actually, physically, had been aching on and off because she was so desperate to move. To make matters worse the aching had seemed to decided it was going to stay permanently on roughly an hour ago when she decided she was going to try and sleep, something that obviously wasn't happening. Not to mention being able to do nothing at all was just giving her time to think, and all she could think about lately were things that stressed her out.

"I know," Casey sighed, Karai may not be fully aware of it, but she isn't the only one who feels helpless. They're practically sitting ducks, the guys haven't been able to figure what's going on, who or what the Kraang are after, or if anybody in their family is even in any danger. All they have is a theory, and that's something you can't stop from eating away at you or those you love. "I know you're trying and I wish I could help. I'm just worried." He said and Karai gave a sigh.

"Believe me we're both-OW!" She cut herself off as she reflexively clutched her stomach and jerked her body upwards, before growling out of frustration and lying back down.

"Are you ok?" Casey asked in a panic, quickly sitting up but Karai just pulled him back down.

"I'm fine, it's just that its legs are a lot stronger now." She said but Casey was still worried.

"I thought you said it wasn't kicking you as much? You said it ran out of enough room to do anything more than just twist around." He asked

"Making it all the more painful when it finds some space," Karai explained before she gave a smirk, "which by the way it found some up by my ribs the other day and I'm pretty sure it got it's foot caught." She said, grudgingly remembering roughly a week ago when she had felt a really weird sort of discomfort like something was stuck in-between two of her ribs just before the baby began moving a lot, only for it to settle down around the same time the feeling suddenly disappeared.

She wouldn't tell Casey, because really there's no need to freak him out, but this kick was far below her ribs. That meant that at some point within the last week the baby had dropped down closer to her pelvis, which only means that she is that much closer to giving birth.

 _It's ok, that's supposed to happen two or three weeks before it's born. If it didn't drop down soon you would've had reason to be scared._ She thought to herself, trying to calm herself.

"Great, it's going to be that one kid who gets its head stuck in a fence." Casey half joked half seriously meant and there for dreaded.

Karai chuckled a little bit as she came back to the conversation before groaning in frustration while slamming her head back into her pillow. "Ugh! Go to sleep!" She pleaded with her child and Casey only laughed, propping himself up on one elbow as he rolled onto his side to face Karai.

"You're going to be really happy when this is over aren't you?" He asked

"You have no idea," she groaned, "Thank god," she proceeded to mutter

"Finally stop?" Casey questioned and his girlfriend nodded. "Then try and get some sleep before it wakes up again," he joked and Karai rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, because it's that easy." She commented

"Hey, I'm just-" but Casey was cut off by a scream coming from outside the apartment.

For a moment he and Karai just lay there before he finally sprung up and sprinted to the window, unable to believe what he saw outside.

* * *

Leo should really know by now that when April calls from work its bad, so when she called from work in the middle of the night he should've known it was REALLY bad. But when he woke up to see her caller I.D. he couldn't think of what could be so important that she had to call on the night the turtles had taken off from patrol.

"Hello?" His groggy and sleep coated voice as he sat up in bed.

"Leo! Turn on the news!" April's voice came shouting on the other end

"April it's after midnight, what are you doing at work?" He questioned

"It's the Kraang! Just turn it on!" The instant she said Kraang Leo was out of bed and running for the living room.

"Angel, turn the news on!" He called to Casey's sister who had been staying in the lair the past few weeks after one too many arguments with her father.

"Got it," The fourteen-year-old obeyed without question; she just scrambled around the couch for the remote, and found it underneath her crutches.

When Leo arrived in the living room the TV was just flicking to life, and the images it displayed were those of the Kraang's human disguises gathered in the streets by the hundreds, smashing buildings with their hands.

"Dude since when are the robots that strong?" Mikey asked as he and the other two joined Leo and Angel in the living room; having been woken and interested to see what was going on.

"They're not, but the clones are." Donnie answered his brother, "this must be what those upgrade papers we found were about. They were increasing the strength and the numbers of these things." He continued

"Which explains what the Kraang got out of their deal, a testing ground for their latest weapons." Raph said

"We still don't know if Shredder was involved, but right now we've got bigger problems." Leo quickly reminded his brother, "Call Casey and let's move."

* * *

When Casey saw what was happening outside he had grabbed his gear while Karai got up and threw on a sweatshirt. While Casey did the same she went to get Justin, and in her son's bedroom she saw her worst nightmare about to be realized.

One of the clones, drones, zombies, whatever the Kraang's little superhuman creation is called, it was holding a very petrified looking Justin at least a foot off the ground as Shredder stood before him with a murderous look in his eyes.

"Mom!" Justin cried as Oroku Saki spun his head to see the girl he raised, eyes glowing with hate as he spotted her pregnant belly and he realized that the information the Kraang had given him was not false.

"Karai!" Casey's voice came from the next room but Karai held out her hand in a signal to stop, never once taking her eyes off Shredder.

"Casey, don't move." She said cautiously, knowing Shredder wouldn't hesitate to kill him.

She had spent the past four years anticipating the moment she would come face to face with Oroku Saki again. She had run scenarios in her mind; where she and her brother's killed him, where he killed them, where he killed only her, and some where she went it alone struck him down in cold blood like he did her father. But this man was not the man who had killed Splinter. She could see it in his eyes; he was no longer boiling with hate for his former brother. He was filled with anger; anger and confusion. He had lost a considerable amount of muscle as well, he hadn't really let himself go but it was clear that he wasn't training the way he used to. Karai had spent the past five years of her life thinking about all the different ways to kill this man before her, but now that he was here and she could see what he had become, she had a new plan; one her father would be proud of.

"Please, don't kill my son." She pleaded with him in a calm voice, both her hands raised to show that she had no weapons. "I'm sorry that when you went out for blood twenty-two years ago the woman you loved got in the way, and I'm sorry that it had to be your blade that took her. You lied to me, but so did my father." Now she had his attention, "he didn't tell me that he and my mother were fighting days before the fire until he was lying in the middle of the park bleeding out!" She nearly shouted; she wanted so badly to throw that in Shredder's face, to remind him that he had murdered her father. But if she wanted to stand a chance at saving her son she would have to at least try and ignore what this ghost of a man had done. "I am not your daughter, but I am the daughter of a woman who trusted you, who was your friend. I may never have gotten the chance to know my mother but I do know that she wouldn't want this." She tried to reason with him, and she noticed that his grip on his sword actually did falter for a ghost of a second; maybe he wasn't totally hopeless. "Please Shredder, please for five minutes think about my mother. She is gone, my father is gone, and there is a sword at the throat of their grandson. You were my father's brother, you were their family!" She all but shouted, and that is when Shredder's blades struck.

He made a clean slice, Karai yelped when he moved, and in the next room Casey thought he might be sick. But he didn't move, neither did Karai, she just stared with wide eyes at the goop leaking out of what had been Shredder's little sidekick. Justin fell to the floor with a thud, to in shock that he was still alive to pick himself back up before Shredder lifted him by the back of his shirt and threw him to the ground at his mother's feet. On instinct Karai leaned over as best she could in an attempt to catch him, with some success. She managed to catch him just under his arms and just barely stop him from face planting. As she looked up she barely had enough time to see Shredder snarl at her before he disappeared outside Justin's bedroom window.

* * *

Meanwhile blocks away Irma was racing through the city streets. She had been staying with April for most of the past two months but tonight with the Kraang using their super-soldiers not only had she been called out late to work but also there was another problem. With the Kraang attacking Irma had a really bad feeling of one place they might attack, and she could not let that happen. She'd been visiting Madeline ever since she brought her home, and that little girl and her family are some of the nicest people she's ever met. They're a real family, maybe even the closest thing Irma can say she's had to one since the loss of her own. She may be living with April, but it's Madeline's family who's taken her in. She's over there a few times a week; mostly helping keep an eye on Madeline and her brother, but she likes it.

Just as she arrived in the apartment, using the spare key the family hides under the mat to enter, she heard the fighting and screaming inside. She burst through the door to find the apartment a wreck; Madeline, her brother, and her mom all huddled under the kitchen table while her father fought off the super powered clone of his daughter.

"Madeline, what is going on?!" Mrs. Fitzgerald demanded of her daughter just as Irma hit her knees beside the table.

"It's a long story," she said

"IRMA!" Madeline exclaimed and Irma couldn't help but smile

"Hey Maddie," she said before a crash coming from the next room caught their attention. "Sounds like your dad could use some help, I'll take care of that you tell your mom what's going on." She instructed, earning a very quizzical stare from Mrs. Fitzgerald.

"But you said-?"

"Maddie we're under attack, they'll understand." Irma assured her friend before she locked eyes with the girl's mother. "You're not going to believe a single word she's about to tell you, but it's all true." She said and with that, and one more crash from the next room, this one worse than the last; Irma rushed off.

* * *

After Shredder vanished Karai and Justin rushed to the sewer entrance while Casey went to help the guys in fighting the Kraang. The two of them were moving through the sewers and Karai was trying to ignore the aching pain in her legs, pain that had now spread to her abdomen. She had thought that getting up would help, but turns out that was just making things worse. Now she felt like she was having the worst stomach cramps she'd ever had.

 _Calm down, it's nothing._ She kept thinking to herself, and she continued trying to convince herself of this until she felt something trickling down her leg, and she froze.

"Mom hurry up," Justin said before turning back and noticed his mother frozen where she stood. "Mom?" He asked but she just brought herself back to reality.

"Coming," she said and so they continued.

As they kept walking Karai tried to move fast as she could without raising alarm from her son, and when she inevitably did raise alarm she just told him that she wanted to get to the lair as soon as possible. He didn't ask further questions and for that Karai was grateful, because she was panicking on the inside. This was literally the worst possible time for her to have a baby. The surface is under attack so not only can she not go to a hospital but odds are Donnie's up there fighting with the others; meaning she's on her own.

"Hey," Angel's voice greeted them causally, Karai breathed out a sigh of relief at the reminder that the younger girl was staying with her brothers.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?" She asked, cocking her head towards Donnie's lab. With a curious glance Angel grabbed her crutches and heaved herself up, following Karai into the lab.

"What's- hey are you ok?" The younger girl asked, instantly becoming concerned when she noticed her brother's tough as nails girlfriend plowing her fists into Donnie's medical bed with her face contorted in pain.

"No," she said, shaking her head and letting out a gasp. "My stomach was hurting for awhile and I thought it was nothing but now I'm pretty sure it's contractions." She struggled to say.

"Oh my god, are you sure?" Angel exclaimed

"Well I wasn't, I thought I was just being paranoid, but I think my water breaking was a pretty good sign that it isn't all in my head." She said

"Your water broke?!" Angel demanded and Karai nodded. "When!?" The teenager again demanded.

"Halfway to the lair," Karai struggled to answer, the aching in her legs still circulating endlessly.

"Does Justin know?" Angel asked, still trying to process what was happening.

"No," Karai said with a shake of her head, just then another contraction hit her and her fists balled even tighter than they already were.

"Ok, ok. Get on the bed, and just try to relax. Do you know if Donnie has any sterile towels anywhere?" Angel asked as she traded out her crutches for Donnie's wheeling desk chair and began using her good leg to propel herself around the room.

"Top shelf of the closet, not that I don't trust you, or have a choice, but do you know how to deliver a baby?" Karai asked as Angel opened Donnie's supply closet, then frowned before wheeling back for her crutches, then returning to the closet with one and used it to knock down a sealed plastic bag containing a towel.

"Karai I'm fourteen-years-old, you have every right not to trust me here." The younger girl deadpanned as she snatched up some hand sanitizer, a sponge, and scanned the closet for anything else they would need. "But for the record, I actually do know how to deliver a baby." She said and that was when a banging sound came from the doors.

"Mom? Auntie Angel?" Justin's frightened voice came calling, Angel looked to Karai for instructions and the older woman simply nodded, they were going to have to tell Justin eventually.

* * *

"Not the best time Angel!" Casey exclaimed into his phone, he was currently on a rooftop with one super Kraang wrestling against his hockey stick while Raph was holding off another one behind him.

"Sorry dad," the voice on the other end said.

"Justin? Look I don't know why you stole Auntie Angel's phone but give it back and don't call any of us unless it's an emergency!" Casey began to scold his son, much to the apparent annoyance of Raph who could not believe the conversation he was overhearing.

"Casey! Hang up the phone!" The hothead shouted

"But it is an emergency!" Justin shouted at the same time, Casey chose to listen to Justin.

"What is it?" He asked, still struggling against the Kraang drone thing attacking him.

"Mommy says not to hurry back cause she thinks it might be awhile before, um, it's actually born but she says the baby's coming." He explained and to the credit of the little boy he seemed very calm, meanwhile his father on the other hand was 97% sure that his heart stopped beating.

The clone-like thing finally overpowering him only for Donnie to come to his rescue by stabbing through it is what pulled Casey back to reality.

"Get your head in the game Jones!" Donnie shouted at the former hockey player who very shakily got to his feet.

"That was Justin, Karai's having the baby." He said, still in shock from the phone call.

"WHAT!?" Donnie panicked, that was when Casey realized that Justin was still on the phone.

"Justin is mom ok?" He asked

"Actually it's Angel now, she's fine and she's telling me to tell you not to rush back or worry or anything but I know that's not going to hold anything with you. But chill out her contractions are only seven minutes apart and they're not lasting long so you've got some time-" Angel was cut off when Donnie snatched the phone from her brother.

"Angel, listen to me! We need all the help we can get out here, do you know what you're doing?" The turtle demanded

"Yes, I do. Like I said her contractions are seven minutes apart and only lasting about fifteen or twenty seconds each, we don't need to be very concerned until they're less than five minutes apart and lasting between forty-five seconds and a minute. Don't start pushing until she's thirteen centimeters dilated and-"

"Ten!" Donnie cut her off.

"Ten, ok sorry, look the only thing I don't know is how to cut an umbilical chord." With a sigh Donnie began explaining that to the girl on the other end, knowing that he most likely wouldn't make it back in time to help his sister.

While he was doing that Casey explained to Leo what was happening.

"GO!" The leader shouted from his battle

"Are you sure you don't need me?" Casey questioned

"Casey I don't care if Karai tries to kill either of us for me sending you back, she needs you more." Leo argued and though Casey was still in a state of disbelief that this was happening at all he nodded and took off sprinting, grabbing his phone from Donnie in the process.


	18. You Have Got to be Kidding (Part 2)

"You've gotta be kidding me," Raph huffed as he and his brothers finally finished off the last of the super Kraang, for now. "I thought she wasn't due for another week!" He continued

"Actually pregnancy is extremely hard to calculate and pinpoint to an exact date, and it's not uncommon for-"

"Alright I get it!" Raph interrupted Donnie, "why didn't we send him back to the lair?" He asked Leo, pointing an annoyed thumb at Donnie.

"We need all hands on deck, but whether she admits it or not Karai needs Casey more than we do. Besides who knows where his head would be if he stayed." Leo said, truthfully he was more than a little worried about Angel being the one to help deliver the baby, after all where exactly could she have learned to deliver a baby? Not to mention that it didn't help when he heard Donnie scream something into the phone before he began rambling something about the ultrasound machine, as if giving her a crash course in how to use it.

"Um, is now a bad time to mention that these are called syntho-clones?" Mikey butted in and Raph face palmed

"Kinda!" He exclaimed in frustration

"Let's just get moving," Leo decided but before they could move, or ask any questions as to where they were moving to, the labored breathing of a person coming up the fire escape caught their attention just as April climbed into sight.

"Sorry, my boss finally let me go after the news van was destroyed. So what'd I miss?"

* * *

Casey went skating through the sewers, taking the shortest route he knew to the lair. He had a million and one thoughts racing through his mind right now. For one he felt slightly guilty for abandoning the guys, but that was way at the back of his mind. Mostly he was concerned with what he was about to run into, the birth of his child. He just couldn't believe that this was happening now, or at all for that matter. Sure he's been a father since he was eighteen, or seventeen technically but he didn't know at that point, but maybe that's just it. Not only was Justin not born in a traditional sense but he didn't know about him. He met him over a year later, when he was already big enough to walk and feed himself and all the basics. But this baby, it's going to be a newborn. He's going to need to figure out how to actually take care of this baby, and in the current situation, that's going to be interesting.

As he finally reached the lair he found Justin in the living room standing right in front of the lab door, looking at it with worried eyes.

"Justin!" Casey said as he skidded to a stop and fell to his knees so he'd be eye level with his son. He placed his hands on the boy's shoulders as he caught his breath and retracted his skates. "What's going on?" He questioned but Justin simply shook his head as a few tears fell from his eyes.

"I don't know, they told me to stay out here." The little boy cried, "I'm scared daddy." He admitted

"Don't be scared," Casey told his son, briefly pulling him into an embrace. "Everyone is ok, but I need to go in there and help your mother." He began to explain

"I want to help too," Justin said but Casey shook his head as he pulled away from the boy.

"No buddy, you need to stay out here." He said

"But-" Justin began to argue

"Justin please," Casey begged before an idea came to him. He then pulled his phone from his pocket and handed it to the little boy. "Things are going to be crazy in there, and I won't notice if one of your Uncle's calls me with an emergency. So I'm putting you in charge of my phone, and if they call knock on the door to the lab and yell for me ok? Can you do that?" He asked of his son who took the phone.

"Can I play games?" He questioned and Casey couldn't help but roll his eyes

"Yes you can play games!" He exclaimed in frustration, normally he and Karai tried to limit how much Justin played on their phones but right now that was the absolute last thing on his mind.

With a grateful smile Justin nodded in agreement to the job, much to Casey's relief.

"Thanks buddy," he said, patting the boy on the shoulder before he stood up and entered the lab.

* * *

"Wow, clearly I missed a lot." April said as she and the guys made their way to TCRI along the rooftops of the city, Leo explaining to her what had transpired in the last hour.

"Not really, just one really important thing." Raph commented

"One important thing that if anything goes wrong-"

"Nothing's going to go wrong Donnie." Leo assured is little brother, "both Karai and the baby are going to be fine. She can handle the pain and if that kid is anything like it's parents then it can survive anything." He continued; Donnie wanted to argue with some medical facts about premature birth, although technically a baby born only a week early doesn't qualify as premature. That aside there are still plenty of ways for something to go wrong but the turtle still decided to shut his mouth and focus on the task at hand, because this train of thought was only worrying him more than he needed.

"I hope you're right Leo," he said as they came to a stop and he started explaining what he had come up with for stopping the syntho-clones.

As he explained Leo tried to listen, and he did get the gist of it, but honestly he was a little distracted. He hoped he was right too.

* * *

"Karai you're being stupid!" Casey shouted at his girlfriend in annoyance, she hadn't put up too much of a fight when he first showed up, because even she couldn't deny that she was happy to see him and wanted him here. But now that he was here he felt useless because it was obvious that her contractions were getting worse and she was still insistent on clutching the edge of the blanket Angel had spread over her legs.

"Well excuse me for not… wanting to hurt you." She struggled to say with her eyes squeezed shut in pain, finally gasping for breath as the contraction ended.

She actually found it really sweet that Casey kept pleading with her to hold his hand, but she was trying to keep in mind that she loves him and doesn't actually want to hurt him. Still, she knew that she was going to give in eventually. She'd experienced really bad stomach cramps throughout her life, in fact this wasn't even the first time the pain had spread to become an excruciating ach in her legs, but never had she felt like this. She felt like her stomach was being ripped apart, and to make it worse Donnie didn't have anything in the lab that she could take to lessen the pain. She felt like she was about to scream, and considering her contractions had done nothing more than start lasting a little longer, she knew that this was nowhere near as bad as it gets. But she needed to get the pain out; needed to release it's energy somehow. That was looking like it was either going to be screaming or crushing the hand of her boyfriend, and no way was she going to scream with her son in the next room worried enough already.

"Dude there is a living thing the size of a football that's been stuffed with bricks inside of you trying to force it's way out, and you're worried about me getting hurt?" Casey asked, trying to get Karai to give up the tough girl act already and accept some help.

"Thanks for that mental image," Karai scoffed and Casey rolled his eyes, but then he got an idea.

"Does it still hurt? Like between contractions?" He asked, though he seriously regretted it once he saw the look she gave him.

"Yes Casey, it still hurts." She spat in an icy voice.

"Moron," They both heard Angel mutter from her seat over at another counter; she was trying to give the couple some privacy and so was sitting at the counter with a burner and boiling all the tools she suspected she'd need (and even a few she doubted she would) in water for sterilization.

"Lean forward," Casey instructed, ignoring his sister.

"What?" Karai asked, though she was too tired to argue.

"Come on, just for a sec." Her boyfriend insisted and so with a sigh she did as he asked, and became even more confused when he climbed onto the bed and sat behind her. She was about to ask what he was doing when he answered her by kneading his hands into her lower back, attempting to massage away some of the pain.

"Mhmm, oh my god I love you," she moaned happily, Casey just snickered while Angel snapped her head up.

"If I turn around you two better not be-"

"Angel why would we?" Casey snapped, somewhat repulsed by the fact that these assumptions were coming from his little sister.

At his words Angel did in fact turn her head to see what was actually going on behind her.

"I don't know but I was just making sure," she responded.

Casey stuck his tongue out and Karai rolled her eyes, but other than that each of them ignored Angel and the conversation was dropped.

Casey and Karai sat in silence; try as he might Casey couldn't make the pain go away, but Karai was grateful for what he could do. As he rubbed her back she couldn't help but begin to zone out, though the crippling pain she was still silently experiencing prevented her from totally checking out of reality. She wasn't sure how long they sat there, but she did know that it was less time than usual in between when another contraction snapped her back to the real world. She tried to double over in pain, but her swollen stomach made that quite impossible. She wrapped her arms around herself, digging her fingers into her ribcage as she tried to breathe through the pain.

Casey felt his girlfriend's muscle's tense immediately as she folded in on herself, and he only froze up for a second before he untangled her arms and held her hands. Suddenly he became very aware of why she had feared she'd hurt him, as it took almost all of his control not to yelp out in pain due to her vice like grip.

"These things… are getting… worse," Karai strained to say, her words, as well as her breath, coming out in pants.

"Coming," Angel announced, pushing herself over to the end of the cot. She lifted up the blanket that was covering her friend's legs and took a look, something she was really not comfortable doing, before putting the blanket back down and giving Karai sympathetic frown. "Sorry Karai but it looks like you've still got a ways to go," she said, she couldn't tell if Karai growled out of frustration or just pain, but it was probably a mixture of the two.

"It probably doesn't help that she's leaning against a concrete wall," Casey commented.

"I'm not. I'm leaning… against…you." The kunoichi gasped as she let out one final breath and loosened her grip on Casey's hands slightly when the contraction ended.

"Well on the bright side…" Angel trailed off, checking the stop watch she had found in Donnie's bottom drawer of his desk and been using to keep track of the contractions. "That was forty-one seconds long and thirty seconds shy of seven minutes apart, so you're slowly getting closer." She said with a forced smile, clearly that sounded much better in her head than it did out loud. "As for you," she began with a sudden annoyance, glaring at her brother. "Donnie only has one pillow in here and she does have it, I would've gone and gotten some more but considering you broke my foot I can't get leave the lab in this chair and my crutches are too slow." She lectured, Casey sent her an annoyed glare but he got up without protest and headed for the living room.

* * *

"Ok so I think I've figured out how to disrupt the clones-"

"Syntho-clones!" Mikey interrupted

"Syntho-clones. Psychic link," Donnie announced, amending his words so to fit Mikey's new name for the creatures.

"Why did you call them Syntho-clones anyway?" Raph questioned his little brother

"Because in the show the things like them are called Syntho-drones but some of these guys were clones, so Syntho-clones." The orange-banded turtle proudly explained.

"Can we focus please?!" Donnie snapped, "we've got an entire city under attack by these things and so I think we have things more important than their name to worry about." He continued

"Ok, so what's the plan?" April questioned

"Since these things obviously don't have brains they must be controlled via some kind of satellite so I ran a trace and there's a suspicious amount of electromagnetic waves coming from TCRI." The purple-banded turtle explained

"There's a shock," Raph huffed

Just then a huge explosion cut through the conversation, and the group turned around to see at least three buildings not far from them up in flames. For a moment all five of the young adults just stood there, frozen in time. They had seen destruction tonight, and in the past, but never anything like this.

"I thought the Kraang wanted to take over New York, not destroy it." April said more than asked.

"Maybe they're trying to level the place?" Mikey more asked than suggested, "That way they can kill everyone and get the ground to rebuild it into whatever they want." The others all looked at Mikey with blank expressions, each considering the idea, and each knowing that it was in fact the most likely explanation.

"April, you go with Donnie to TCRI. Raph and Mikey, you're with me." Leo ordered

"And what are we doing exactly?" Raph asked, though he already had a pretty strong feeling about the answer.

"Anything we can to hold the Kraang off." Leo declared.

* * *

"Heh, so much for you not having the baby in the lab." Casey joked as Karai's latest contraction ended. He knew he probably shouldn't be making jokes, but counting the time she was in pain back at the apartment without realizing it was labor, she had been enduring this hell for almost three hours. He figured he should at least try and make her laugh.

"Casey, shut up." She groaned, much too tired to come back with some kind of remark. She could only be grateful that things were moving along rather consistently, slowly, but consistently. It was clear at this point that she was not going to be one of those mothers who was in labor for 10+ hours, and for that she was grateful. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take. She was now wearing nothing but her tank top, her sweatshirt lying long abandoned on the floor along with her shorts and underwear. Her bangs were stuck by sweat to her forehead and Justin had banged on the door more than enough times to ask if she had the baby yet, apparently he didn't believe it when Angel promised they'd come get him when the baby arrived.

"Sorry," Casey murmured as he dipped his hand into the bucket of ice water he was keeping by the cot, fished out the soaking wet cloth from within it, wrung it out, and placed it gently on the back of Karai's neck.

Karai tensed up for a split second at the sudden sensation of the cold water against her skin, but she soon welcomed it. She had nearly jumped the first time Casey did this roughly an hour ago, but now it was one of the only things getting her through this torture. Another five minutes passed, putting her contractions still at six minutes apart, when another painful one wracked through her body. She squeezed Casey's hands tight and attempted to focus only on breathing, though that didn't stop her from crying out in agony more than once throughout the eternal minute this lasted.

"Come on, come on babe just keep breathing. Just-"

"I SWEAR TO GOD CASEY IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP IN THE NEXT FIVE SECONDS I AM GOING TO SNAP YOUR WRISTS!" She screamed at the idiot whispering in her ear. She felt a little bad about it, but he had been saying this kind of thing throughout her last couple contractions and each time she got a little more annoyed.

Wisely, the former hockey player clamped his mouth shut, and settled for just holding her hands throughout the remainder of the contraction. He wished he could help more but clearly what he thought might be encouraging she just found distracting and annoying. Angel, however, heard the outburst and decided that now might be a good time for another status check. Again, she felt really awkward about doing this but there wasn't really any other way. So she once again wheeled herself over to the foot of the medical bed and lifted up the blanket just enough to see, then huffed as she set it back down.

"Well the good news is you're close," she said, a fake smile on her face.

"Is there bad news?" Casey asked; Karai was leaning tiredly against him, trying to get as much relief as she could before another contraction hit her.

"Yeah, close means I'd give it about another forty-five minutes." Angel replied, Casey knew that could've been a lot worse but he decided to keep his opinion to himself when Karai responded to the news by letting out a mix between a groan and a cry and leaning her head even further back into his shoulder.

* * *

"So what's the plan again?" April asked as she and Donnie snuck around the upper levels of the TCRI building where Donnie was sure the signal was coming from.

"You may not have been able to interfere with the link using your powers but you should be able to jam the signal, and if not I'm sure I can find a way to rewire it." The genius turtle recapped as they turned a corner, but quickly turned back when they noticed two Kraang guards standing in front of the door.

Quickly, Donnie sent two throwing stars, each rendering one droid useless. He and April then walked right into the room where they found it contained a few monitors and one large, blinking antenna.

"April?" Donnie inquired, wondering if she thought she'd be able to disrupt the antenna's signal. Her powers had improved greatly over the past few years, but as she stood there with her hands placed to her temples and her concentration uninterrupted she found herself receiving no luck, and then with a pounding headache.

"Ahh," she seethed in pain, quickly putting her powers to a stop. "The Kraang put some kind force field around it, I can't get through." She announced but Donnie simply nodded and set to work on the wires.

While he did that April wandered around the room, a nagging feeling in her gut.

 _This is too easy,_ she thought, _this is all too easy._

A part of her, a rather large part in fact, didn't want to listen to these thoughts. Surely it only seemed easy because most of the Kraang's army was out in the city, trying to destroy the place, right? But still, they'd faced Kraang invasion after Kraang invasion a thousand and one times before and breaking into TCRI, even with most of the Kraang's forces distracted, was never this easy. So as she wandered the room she began swiping around the screen of a computer. For the most part everything on it was either locked up behind a firewall or completely irrelevant, until something caught her eye. It was a map, an old map of the sewers, five years old to be exact. It was from around the time the Kraang had first invaded with Kraang Prime; from the year April herself had unknowingly led them straight to the lair. And there it was. Right in the place on the map where the lair is located in real life, was a big, fat, red, X. April's eyes widened at the mark, they should've known that the Kraang would keep information like this for later. But could the Kraang really know that the turtles had returned to the lair following their defeat? And why wait until now to use such information? But if the document was open then the reasons why didn't exactly matter; what did matter was that they were in trouble.

"Donnie? How much longer until you take out that signal?" The red head asked fearfully.

"Could be a little while, it's very complicated, why?" Donnie questioned.

* * *

In just about every single experience Karai had ever had with pain in the past she found that it could always get worse but eventually she would get so used to it that she would be able to numb it out; that was not the case here. This intense hell had been coursing through her for just over four hours now and with every passing minute it just got worse and worse. Her contractions her now coming at only three minutes apart and she was starting to wonder why the hell Angel couldn't just give her the ok to start pushing already. She was actually crying at this point it hurt so much, something that had really thrown both Casey and Angel for a loop. Sure Casey had seen her cry plenty of times before, but never once out of physical pain. She barely even noticed it as her contraction ended, it hurt too much in between to notice when one was over. She really had to give Casey credit; despite the fact that she had probably fractured a few of his fingers by now he was still sitting behind her, letting her lean against him and only ever taking his hands away to rub her back or get the wash cloth, not to mention he hadn't fainted yet. She was still thinking about that, mostly trying to distract herself from the pain, when she felt something. Throughout all this she had been in too much pain to actually notice any feeling of her baby moving, but now that she for just a split second felt something lightly brushing up against the front of her pelvis, she knew exactly what it was and she knew that it needed to come out NOW.

"Angel-" she began but the teen sitting before her cut her off.

"Yeah, go for it on the next one." The young girl confirmed, she had just been about to say something, but was slightly delayed due to her slight shock when before she spoke she became vaguely sure that she could see the very top of a head.

Karai nodded, though even she wouldn't deny that she was more than a little scared. Suddenly she felt like she was seventeen again, like she was back in that warehouse staring into the large metal cage that contained nothing more than a crying baby boy. She felt just as scared as she did when she first became a mother, not an ounce better and not an ounce worse; emotionally speaking that is.

Suddenly, almost a full minute before she had expected it to, a powerful contraction overtook her. She squeezed Casey's hands so suddenly and hard that a yelp of pain escaped him, but it was mostly drowned out by her own gasps.

"Alright, you got it, push, push," Angel coached, "push," she continued

"Can I say something?" Casey inquired

"IF YOU'RE GONNA BE HELPFUL!" Karai shouted back, even managing a roll of her eyes before another strangled groan escaped her. Her face was turning beat red as strained sounds escaped her lips, and sure didn't help that she wasted oxygen yelling at Casey.

"Karai, honey, breathe." Casey said to her, he didn't care that telling her to breathe is what got him in trouble last time, this time she actually had no air left in her lungs and she wasn't taking in any more.

"Trying…" she forced out, "nrg… gggrrr, gah!" At that she gave in to Casey's words and pretty much stopped pushing in order to get some air back in her lungs, before she started again.

"Whoa! Whoa, stop!" Angel hurriedly said, waving her hands in an urgent manner. "Your contraction is over and you're just going to hurt yourself pushing without one, just wait a minute for your next one." She instructed and Karai all but slammed her head back into Casey.

"Hey, it's ok. You've got this." He said encouragingly as he wiped the tears from her face.

"I've felt pain before Casey, but nothing like this." She panted and he just smirked before placing a kiss to her temple.

"I know, but its only going to last a couple more minutes." He said, smiling down at her and she gave him a tired smile back.

"Um not to break this up but, get ready." Angel nervously interrupted, during the couple's conversation she had torn off the packaging on Donnie's sterilized towels, placed them on the counter, and re-sanitized her hands. Where a turtle living in the sewer got his hands on sterilized, wrapped towels Angel had no idea but she wasn't complaining. "Also it's going to be easier the farther apart your legs are," Angel advised and without a word Casey reclaimed his left hand for a moment, linked his arm under Karai's knee, pulled her knee up to her shoulder, and re-clasped his hand in hers. For a moment Angel wanted to ask if that hurt, but they had way more important things to worry about and Karai is probably beyond capable of bending that way without pain.

She couldn't think further on the matter even if she wanted to, because that was when the contraction hit. To Karai it felt worse than any contraction yet, this one tore through her and along with the feeling of her insides ripping apart she felt an extremely painful pressure of something very slowly inching into the space between her legs. She grunted and cried in agony as this happened, barely even hearing Angel instructing her to keep pushing. She was leaning back into Casey, vaguely aware that she was hurting him, and so she decided to try a new tactic. With impressive speed for someone in her excruciating amount of pain she sat up and hunched over, buckling down as she attempted force the baby out of her.

"Whoa, ease up! Ease up!" Angel shouted and at the command Karai stopped, something that seemed to worry Angel even more. "Don't stop, just ease up."

"Why are you telling her to ease up? Is-" Casey demanded, most likely in the midst of a heat attack.

"Nothing's wrong, but she's pushing a little hard and is about to tear herself, and you don't want me to try giving stitches from this angle." The younger girl exclaimed and with that Karai let out a scream, bringing the panicking siblings back to the matter at hand.

"Sorry just push a little lighter, ok?" Angel instructed and Karai nodded as she took a shaky breath.

"Ok," she agreed her voice trembling, her contraction had once again ended but she knew the drill this time, and she also knew that the next one was going to be it.

"Karai just one more ok? Come on, you can do this." Casey encouraged and again Karai nodded, swallowing a mix of tears and air as she prepared herself for the next, and hopefully last, contraction. He gave her another kiss on the temple but pulled away immediately when he felt her squeezing both his hands with the sudden pain. She buckled down again, and this time Casey leaned his head over her shoulder in an attempt to see.

"Come on Karai, come on you're doing great." Angel encouraged and if she weren't the one they were relying on to catch the baby Karai just might have told her to shut up, if she could still speak that is. She didn't think it was possible to need this much force to expel something from your body, but it was and she was pushing all the way from her shoulders. She was squeezing Casey's hands so tight that had they been standing up she was sure he would've been holding her with her feet off the ground. She was gasping and grunting and screaming and tears were sliding down her face, forget about Shredder's dungeon, this was absolute hell.

But then, just as she became aware of the ever-building pressure between her legs suddenly vanishing, she heard a high-pitched cry.

"It's a girl!" She heard Angel exclaim and she collapsed back against Casey. Her vision was foggy with tears that she blinked away just in time to see Angel snip the baby's umbilical chord and all but throw her onto her mother's chest.

"Ang-"

"Hey, that's what they do in hospitals!" Angel defended quickly against her brother, but Karai barely heard either of them.

She was too enticed with this moment; her tiny little girl lying on her chest, calming down as her mother's arms wrapped around her. Karai briefly wondered how the idea of having a daughter could have ever terrified her, or scared her at all, because now it was all too obvious that she believed in her ability to be a mom to her daughter.


	19. After the Storm Blows Through

As Angel took the slimy, blood covered, baby over to the large sink to clean her up before wrapping her in a towel Casey went and grabbed Karai's sweatshirt off the floor and shook it off, figuring she probably wouldn't want to explain to Justin why there was blood on her chest.

"Thanks," Karai breathed out as she took her sweatshirt, not only would it hide the blood but now that she wasn't sweating and her temperature was quickly dropping she actually needed it.

Casey noticed that she was shaking; visibly shaking, as she put on the sweatshirt and he doubted it was from the cold. Once she had the garment on he caught her by surprise with a kiss to her lips.

"I am so proud of you," he said through a smile as he pulled away, Karai just smiled back at him.

"Well…" Angel's less than pleased voice cut in as she wheeled herself over to the couple, "I did my best. But I'm not great at wrapping up a squirming baby." She said apologetically, she had the haphazardly wrapped bundle in her arms and although it was quite obvious that she had tried it was equally obvious that her hands were holding the towel together more than anything else.

Carefully, she shifted the baby into Karai's arms, giving the kunoichi her first real look at her daughter. She couldn't help but smile as her eyes fell on the little baby in her arms, still whimpering but calming down once she was safe in her mother's arms.

"Hi," she whispered as she moved a corner of the towel away from the baby's face so that she could see her features. For a newborn she had a fairly decent amount of black hair on her head. Her skin was still a reddish color, but that would fade within a few days. She had Casey's nose and chin but when her little eyes blinked open Karai found herself staring down at her own golden brown irises, now she understood why Casey was always saying her eyes are beautiful.

"Hey," Casey whispered as he gently stroked the little girl's cheek with one finger.

Without a word Karai shifted the baby into his arms, taking him a little by surprise, but he quickly got over it and gladly took his daughter into his arms.

"Uh do you guys care if I go lie down?" Angel asked, and for the first time Casey noticed how pale Angel had become.

Then, all at once, he remembered her first grade health class, and how she would come home unable to look at her homework because despite it being no more than some generic drawings of the shape of intestines, she was disgusted by it. He remembered how she fainted after getting her first tooth pulled, for the first time he remembered how squeamish she used to be. She's gotten better as she's gotten older, and today she pushed aside all her mental blocks and helped deliver a baby! So it shouldn't have come as a surprise that as much as she's grown out of how squeamish she used to be, all those old feelings were now coming back like a crashing wave. With a chuckle Casey handed the baby back to Karai as he approached his sister.

"Sure kid," he said, lifting her bridal style out of her chair.

"Hey," Angel protested weakly, but she didn't persist because honestly she didn't care, in fact she was grateful for her brother's kindness.

"You did good, thanks." He muttered, pressing a kiss to her forehead. As he began to carry her out of the lab he stopped before the door and turned back to Karai. "Should I bring Justin back with me?" He asked and she nodded.

"Please," she answered, excited for their son to finally meet his little sister.

* * *

Meanwhile Leo was racing through the sewers. After discovering that the Kraang were headed for the lair, thanks to a call from April, he had left Raph and Mikey where they were and bolted underground. This was by far the worst possible time for those slimy freaks to invade his home. Sure the robots had made a few attempts over the years, but with all four turtles usually home and more often than not with a few highly trained friends over, defeating them was always a piece of cake and after awhile they appeared to have given up. But now it was obvious that they didn't give up at all, they just got smarter. With the attempted destruction of the city they believed that they had drawn everyone out of the lair, and unfortunately those still there were there for a reason. Leo had already taken down at least twenty Syntho-clones, and he knew that there were still more down here. Taking out his phone he looked at the time to see that over three hours had passed since they got the call that Karai was in labor, and knowing that he wouldn't make it to the lair before whatever Kraang were left down here, he gave in and made the call he was dreading.

* * *

Casey was standing off to the side, a proud smile on his face as he watched Justin experimentally holding is sister. He was sitting beside Karai, her carefully placing the baby in his arms. They had a name picked out for the little girl, though presently only Angel and Justin knew it. Originally only Justin was supposed to know and they were going to tell everyone else all at once, but Angel delivered the kid, she had earned a right to know.

Just then the buzzing of his phone, now back in his pocket, snapped Casey from his thoughts and when he took it out he saw Leo's face on the screen.

"Hey everything alright?" He asked the turtle on the other end, hoping he was only calling to say that he and the others were on their way back.

"Not really," Leo practically shouted, "I don't know what's going on over there but the Kraang are in the sewers!"

"What!?" Casey all but shouted, mentally kicking himself because he knew Karai heard.

"Just be on the lookout! I got a lot of them but I think some are still-" Leo was cut off by a distant scream, a scream coming from the living room of the lair, a scream coming from Angel.

"What is-" Karai started to ask but Casey cut her off as he grabbed Donnie's crowbar for a weapon.

"Kraang!" He shouted as an answer before charging into the living room.

Karai's eyes went wide as she listened to the battle out in the living room, it sounded like there was a lot of Kraang, and with both her and Angel unable to so much as stand on their own Casey was in this fight solo. The Kraang were going to get in here, it wasn't a matter of if it was a matter of when. Silently, with a barely thought out plan forming in her mind, she took her daughter back from Justin but when he huddled closer to her for protection she instructed him to get down. At first he only looked at her with a mix of confusion and fear, but when she continued to prompt him he hesitantly climbed down from the bed. Once Justin was down Karai bent over, ignoring the pain that caused in her abdomen, and carefully handed the baby back to Justin. He was clearly confused by this but took his sister regardless.

"You got her?" Karai asked as she carefully took away her own hands when Justin nodded. "Be careful of her head," She reminded Justin and just then two Kraang got through the doorway and started coming for them.

"Mom!" Justin panicked, still being very careful of his baby sister in his arms.

"Justin, run." Karai ordered him

"What?!" He screeched, causing the baby to start crying. But the Kraang were getting closer, his dad was nowhere in sight, and if he didn't move soon they'd have both him and the rest of his family.

"Run!" Karai shouted this time, and Justin took off.

He went running through the back door of the lab, still extremely mindful of the baby in his arms. Karai watched them go and once they were gone she focused her attention on the attacking Kraang. She reached over the side of the bed and grabbed Casey's bucket of water, lifting it up and pouring it onto the Kraang. This shorted out both robots and caused their little pilots to go scampering away in fear. Karai couldn't help but smirk, very satisfied with her victory. But it didn't last long, as just then three more Kraang in human disguises came marching in, and Karai knew that these were the super clones, not robots. Thinking fast she reached over to the counter and grabbed the tools Angel had been using, hurling them at the clones. She managed to puncture one but the wound was nowhere deep enough for it's inside matter to leak out; and the other two dodged the flying tools entirely. As they got closer to her, walking in an almost zombie like fashion, she frantically searched around her for another weapon but not finding one she took what was her only option at that point and threw herself off the medical bed.

* * *

Justin bolted through the sewer, he bolted down the tunnels and the twist and turns until he reached the old subway tunnels, and the whole time he was trying to ignore the cries of his little sister. Finally, he stopped in the one place he figured his family would be able to find him, at his grandpa's grave. Catching his breath he leaned against the stone wall and tried not to panic as fear overtook him. He'd run from the Kraang before, and he knew that his family would always be ok and they would always find him after, but his sister doesn't know that. Fear was overtaking him, because she's new and she's scared and she's counting on him to make it all better. Was this what Uncle Raph was talking about? Was this what he meant when he told him that he would end up setting an example? It didn't seem very fair, how is he supposed to get her to stop crying? She doesn't even know who he is!

"Shh, shh, it's ok." He said to her as he stood almost paralyzed, "We're ok now, don't worry. Mom and dad are ok, we just have to wait here for them." He said to her but she still wouldn't quiet down. He tried rocking her back and forth, as well as singing their mother's lullaby to her, but that didn't work. He just kept rocking her without any other ideas and telling her to "shh," and, eventually, her sobs turned to mere whimpers.

He turned to face his grandpa's grave, and then an idea lit up his face.

"This is where grandpa is buried," he said to the baby in his arms. "He died when I was two years old, I only remember a little about him though." He continued, his memories of his mutant grandfather are clear in his mind, but he has very few of them. He remembers the day he died, he remembers the battle, he remembers the sky breaking apart, but he doesn't remember seeing his grandpa go down. His mom says that's for the best and that he should count himself lucky, she says that she remembers seeing it and wishes she didn't. Sometimes, most of the time actually, he wishes he did remember. But after he died and they buried him here his mom told him that if he was ever lost to come here, she said that grandpa is watching over them all from above now and that he would protect him. "He's watching us right now," he said to his sister before his eyes locked on the grave. His parents had asked him not to tell his sister's name to anyone because they wanted to do it once this whole battle was over, but he since he was here, and since his grandpa probably already knew anyway, he couldn't help but say it. "This is Ivy, grandpa." He said to the stone. "I guess you probably knew that already, but just in case." He continued; Ivy was becoming calmer by the minute, which Justin finally noticed. "Oh wait, you still don't know who I am." He said to the baby, "I'm your brother Justin, I'm the one who's been asking you to not kick mommy so hard." He said, he then proceeded to continue talking to Ivy about everything that had gone on recently, completely unaware of the figure lingering in the shadows just around the corner.

* * *

Donnie was still working hard as he could on the wires, and not long after he began it had become evident that things were in fact not as easy as they seemed. Not only did April locate a recently opened blueprint of the sewers but almost immediately after that a bunch of Syntho-clones came barging in and April was struggling to hold them off.

"Any luck Donnie?" The red had asked for the umpteenth time since this began.

"Almost, just one more, GOT IT!" The genius exclaimed and just like that all the clones in the room dropped, throughout the city the attackers drop, and in the lair the exact same thing happened.

* * *

Speaking of in the lair, when the clones all fell to the ground Casey first helped Angel up as a clone had been strangling her. After making sure she was ok he bolted for the lab, but to his horror he saw no one.

"Karai?" He asked in a nervous voice.

"Over here," his girlfriend's reply came from where she was lying on the ground more or less under Donnie's desk.

"Are you ok?" Casey urgently asked as he half helped her to her feet, half picked her up.

"I've been better," she answered honestly, leaning heavily on her boyfriend in order to stay up.

"Where-?"

"They're fine," she cut Casey off, "Justin has her, I told him to run. He got out," she explained and she could tell that Casey wanted to be mad but he knew that she didn't have any other choice. He helped her back to the medical bed, despite her protests that he should just go already, and once she was sitting down he gave into her words and ran from the lair.

He knew where to go, where Justin would go. Sure enough he was right and he found the little boy standing next to his grandfather's gravestone, his baby sister in his arms.

"Dad!" The little boy exclaimed when he saw him coming, Casey slowed his pace as he reached his children and collected his daughter from his son who was eager to hand her over.

"Are you ok?" He asked Justin who nodded, though he had an apologetic look on his face.

"I'm sorry, I know you said it was a secret but I told grandpa her name." He confessed and Casey chuckled.

"That's alright buddy," he said, "now let's get back to the lair."

Justin happily followed his father down the long tunnel back in the direction of the lair, still blissfully unaware that he had been watched this whole time.

* * *

Shredder watched the little boy, his father, and his new sister, go from around the corner. After he left the family's apartment he came wandering down into the old subway tracks. He wasn't exactly sure what brought him here. Maybe he was looking for some old Kraang weapons, or perhaps even the turtles' lair. But what he found was neither of those things, what he found was Hamato Yoshi's gravesite. They had buried him. Made him a tombstone and everything.

 _Hamato Yoshi_

 _1962-2015_

 _A loving father, grandfather, and teacher_

 _Rest in Peace, Master Splinter_

Shredder had growled upon seeing it, growled out of envy. He knew all too well that no one would write kind things on his tombstone when he passed, in fact he'd probably have to be murdered for anyone to even notice if he died, and even then only his killer would notice. Ever since Splinter's death, which he thought would bring him peace; he'd been more unbalanced than ever. He was empty; he was a dark and empty shell of a man. Sometimes he'd see ghosts; be it in his dreams or right in front of him during the light of day. He would see ghosts of Splinter, both as a human and as a rat. He would see Tang Shen, begging to know what was wrong with him. Begging to know why he had hurt her, and she wasn't always referring to her murder. Then the worst visions of all came; he would see Karai. Sometimes she was a little girl, pleading with him, _why did you kill mommy, daddy?_ She'd ask, and other times she was a teenager, screaming that she was not his daughter and that she hated him. But most of the time she was silent. Most of the time she was eighteen years old, her little boy secured to her front with the aid of a sling, and she was staring at him in horror. He had seen this vision as more than a ghost once, before he even started seeing ghosts, he had seen this when he stabbed Splinter. He had locked eyes with her after it happened, every intention set on telling her that Splinter deserved it, but then he saw her face. Her eyes were wide with tears pricking at their edges, her mouth hung agape and she subconsciously adjusted her sling so that her son was pressed tighter against her. It was that moment, he knew, that he lost her forever. He'd done some horrible things to her as it was, and in that moment he realized it, but with that one stab into her true father's flesh, into his brother's flesh, he'd thrown away any chance at forgiveness he ever could've had with the girl he raised.

After that he disappeared.

Now he was here, sitting before his brother's grave, more confused than ever. It was then that he heard the mixed sounds labored breathing and infantile crying. Without a second thought he dashed behind the nearest corner and hid, though with the stealth of a trained ninja he watched for the source of the sounds. He soon discovered that the labored breaths were those of the child he had nearly killed just a few hours ago, but the cries were originating from the towel he was holding. It didn't take Shredder long to figure out that Karai must have gone into labor and had her baby. He also knew exactly why the two children were so far from their parents, and it would be so easy to cut them both down and dispose of the bodies without anyone ever knowing.

But he remained hidden.

He listened as the boy introduced the baby as though Splinter could really hear him, Ivy, a little girl. He listened as the boy described the current situation to Ivy, although trying to understand the terrified six-year-old's broken speech was beyond annoying. His interest was peaked, however, when the boy mentioned the attack at the apartment.

"Mommy's told me about him before, he killed grandpa." The boy said sadly, "she says that when she was a baby her and grandpa got separated and that Shredder adopted her, Shredder is his name. I don't really know why he attacked me, but he stopped when mommy asked him too, and daddy says that he's crazy." He said before he moved onto another topic, that fact that a six-year-old was able to get over an attack on his life so quickly was slightly concerning, even to Shredder, but he still kept listening.

"Dad!" He finally heard the boy shout, and he peeked around the corner to see that hockey bum running down the tunnel. He waited a few minutes until after the family was gone, it would be so easy to just trail them back to their lair and kill them all. But instead, when Shredder rose, he walked in the other direction and exited the sewers. Two hours later he found himself on a one-way flight back to Japan, hoping to find some clarity by returning to the ground he soiled, to what was left of the Hamato Clan's land.

* * *

In the months following the Kraang's demolition attempt there was a lot going on in the Hamato and Jones families. For one thing, despite the fact that she trusts Donnie more than most doctors and allowed him to check Ivy over for anything wrong, Karai still brought Ivy to a hospital as soon as she could; though it was more for the purpose of filling out a birth certificate than anything else. At the hospital they found Irma with Madeline's family, Madeline's father with a few bruised ribs, and Irma with a broken arm. Apparently they had their own battle with the clones during the attack, during which Madeline was forced to tell the secret of the lair and the turtles. At first neither of her parents believed it, but when Karai brought out a picture they were convinced. They agreed not to tell anyone, though despite that Leo was less than pleased with Irma for a few weeks.

As for adjusting to life with a newborn around, well that was an interesting period for everyone. She was sleeping in a bassinet in his parents' room, but that didn't mean Justin couldn't hear her crying all night long. Despite his claimed annoyance with that, however, he still got up early every morning and snuck into the bedroom in question, creeping beside the bassinet to watch her for a few minutes before somebody woke up.

Another interesting thing came when Karai tried to feed her. Since they hadn't found Justin until he was a year old and able to eat solid food, and since she hadn't given birth to him, they never had this problem with him. Karai decided early on in her pregnancy that she would breast feed Ivy for the first three months; she knew it was more beneficial and frankly it was just easier in her opinion. But it didn't take long for her to hate doing it in the lair because every time she did she found herself wanting to slap at least one of her brothers, because they wouldn't even look at her! At first neither would Justin or Casey, the latter of which Karai could not understand because he's seen her without any clothes at all more than enough times. But they both got over it in a day. April, Angel, and Irma got over it after a couple of days. Her brothers on the other hand were so set on turning around whenever she fed Ivy that eventually she did end up needing to tell them that she didn't care if they looked. That fixed things with three out of the four of them, Raph still took awhile.

Overall things went pretty smoothly, Karai lost most of the baby weight pretty quick but that didn't surprise anyone considering she returned to training when Ivy was only nine weeks old, something that drove not only Casey and Leo crazy but also Donnie since he is the medical expert of the family. But now Ivy was just a week shy of being six months old and Karai was struggling to get her into her coat.

"You ready?" Casey questioned, poking his head in the doorway of the kids' bedroom where Karai had Ivy sitting on the changing table.

"Almost," Karai replied as her efforts finally beat out Ivy's squirming and she zipped up the jacket. "There," she said triumphantly, gathering the baby into her arms. As she did this Casey snuck up and planted a kiss on her lips.

"Cut it out," she laughed as she brushed past him, they were late enough already but still, she would never stop loving how he didn't care about that.

* * *

"Well hello-" Mikey began when Karai and Casey arrived at the lair with their kids.

"Don't say it," Karai cut off, knowing her youngest brother wouldn't listen.

"Mr. and Mrs. Jones!" He finished and Karai sighed, a blush over taking her face because she doesn't know what else to do when the attention is focused on her.

"And you said it," she sighed.

"So you two actually did it? Or are you just pranking us?" Leo questioned smugly, he was just messing with them but at the same time he would not put it past the couple to pull that kind of prank.

"I've got you're proof right here," Casey gloated, pulling the marriage certificate he and Karai had signed earlier today out of his jacket pocket.

"You brought the certificate?" Karai asked, somehow not surprised.

"Relax, that's just a copy." Casey assured her, she still rolled her eyes.

Like the Hamato's do with all parties they spent the night celebrating in the dojo and, despite the fact that both Casey and Karai told him not to, Mikey snuck a slow song into the song mix. However he isn't stupid and he knew that if they were the only ones dancing, Karai and Casey would sooner sit it out. So he made sure they invited their friends Mickey and Damian. Surprisingly his plan worked and he got not only Casey and Karai on the dance floor with their human friends not far away, but April even asked Donnie to dance.

As this happened Raph was sitting in one of the chairs they had set up off to the side with Ivy falling asleep on his lap and Justin standing next to him. He wasn't a particular fan of country music, which is exactly what Mikey had selected with an older song called _Wanted_ by Hunter Hayes, so he wasn't really paying attention to the music. What he was paying attention to, however, was Justin's day dreamy gaze. He followed the little boy's eyes and nearly laughed when he noticed they were locked on a certain seven-year-old girl barely twenty feet away, her parents had allowed her to come with Irma. He noticed how Madeline was quietly swaying to the music, and then with a completely straight face he turned to Justin.

"Ask her to dance," he said, Justin looked at him as if he had just said, "jump off a cliff".

"But-" the little boy started to stammer.

"Justin, you're seven and she's your friend, it's no big deal." He said and so with a gulp Justin nervously walked over to his friend.

"Hi," he squeaked upon reaching her.

"Hi," she squeaked back.

"Do you want to dance?" He asked awkwardly and for a moment she looked at him with the same expression he had given his Uncle just a minute ago, but then she took his hand.

"Ok," she agreed.

"I think we'd better look out," Casey joked and Karai took a glance over her shoulder to see what he was talking about, when she saw Justin and Madeline dancing together she found herself laughing as well.

"Maybe," she joked back and Casey just smirked.

"You look beautiful." He said, she was wearing a short white dress with a flowing skirt that ended at her knees, they had said they weren't really going to dress up but she looked a lot nicer than he did in his black t-shirt with the image of a tuxedo printed on it.

"Thank you," she laughed before her eyes caught sight of Ivy falling asleep on Raph over in the corner. "Just like her brother, can fall asleep anywhere." She said,

"Yeah except her brother actually sleeps through the night." Casey replied,

"She's gotten better," Karai defended

"I know." Casey agreed, "So what do ya think? Did we turn out ok for a couple of kids who didn't know each other when they had a baby together?" She asked and Karai couldn't help but laugh as she leaned in close to him, there's way more to it than that but in a nutshell, that is what happened.

"I'd say so," she agreed before placing a soft kiss against her husband's lips.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Hey guys! I just want to say thank you to you guys not only for the great reviews (which really have been fantastic) but also for sticking with me throughout TWO stories! You guys are the best! I'm so glad you guys liked this sequel, i had thought of just ending Baby of Mine with a time skip a couple years to Ivy's birth, but that didn't seem right so i took this chance and wrote the sequel, so happy you guys liked it! Thanks again, you guys are the best!**


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